Background: Gallbladder cancer is a rare neoplasm associated with high mortality and poor prognosis. It is usually correlated with cholelithiasis and presents more commonly in elderly and female patients. Diagnosis is seldom made preoperatively because of the indolent progression of the tumor. Methods: The hospitalization and surgical records of our surgical department were examined from January 1992 to December 2001, searching for patients who had undergone cholecystectomy. Additionally, the histopathological diagnoses of the same period were studied searching for patients with the diagnosis of gallbladder cancer established postoperatively and not intraoperatively by frozen section. Results: In the period of 1992-2001, a total of 1,536 cholecystectomies took place and 14 cases of gallbladder cancer were diagnosed postoperatively. The ratio of men to women is 3/ 11 with a mean age of 69.4 years. The clinical symptoms were non-specific and mortality was 57%. Conclusion: In most cases gallbladder cancer is diagnosed after cholecystectomy and even in these cases it can be in an advanced stage and the prognosis of this rare neoplasm is poor.

In the seventh century AD, a native of the island of Aegina, a brilliant surgeon, Paulus Aegineta, practiced surgery in Byzantium. Able to perform a wide variety of surgical operations, he summarized his experience and gathered the available knowledge to compose his masterpiece "Medical Compendium." He was credited as the first to operate on the tonsils and the lymphatic system of the lower cervical region and as one of the pioneers to cut the abdominal wall. Fond of the cauterization method, an expert in disinfection and pain palliation, he had presented supreme skills, becoming one of the most important figures in the history of medicine.