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Sullivan et al. Mini-invasive Surg 2023;7:15 Mini-invasive Surgery
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1225.2022.106

Review Open Access

Minimally invasive treatment of gallbladder polyps

Kevin M. Sullivan, Yuman Fong

Department of Surgery, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte CA 91010, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Kevin Sullivan, Department of Surgery, City of Hope National Medical Center, 1500 E Duarte Rd, Duarte
CA 91010 USA. E-mail: kesullivan@coh.org

How to cite this article: Sullivan KM, Fong Y. Minimally invasive treatment of gallbladder polyps. Mini-invasive Surg 2023;7:15.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1225.2022.106
Received: 11 Nov 2022 First Decision: 4 Apr 2023 Revised: 10 Apr 2023 Accepted: 13 Apr 2023 Published: 28 Apr 2023

Academic Editor: Giulio Belli Copy Editor: Ke-Cui Yang Production Editor: Ke-Cui Yang

Abstract
Gallbladder cancer is a lethal disease when diagnosed at later stages, and gallbladder polyps may have malignant
potential or harbor cancer, especially as the polyp increases in size. Therefore, cholecystectomy has been
recommended by guidelines for gallbladder polyps ≥ 10 mm, or smaller polyps with risk factors. In this article, we
review minimally invasive approaches to the management of gallbladder polyps. The predominant method of
cholecystectomy has been laparoscopic, which has advantages in faster recovery compared to open
cholecystectomy. More recently, many surgeons have converted their minimally invasive techniques to robotic
approaches. In addition, combined laparoscopic-endoscopic or purely endoscopic approaches have been reported.
The ultimate goal of gallbladder polyp management using minimally invasive approaches is to minimize morbidity,
given the low incidence of cancer within polyps, while preventing polyps with malignant potential from converting
to cancer, or curing cancerous polyps.

Keywords: Minimally invasive, laparoscopic, robotic, endoscopy, gallbladder polyp

INTRODUCTION
Gallbladder polyps are estimated to have a prevalence of about 5%-15% of the population and are most
[1-4]
commonly discovered incidentally on abdominal ultrasound (US). In addition to abdominal US, computed
tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan can be used to diagnose gallbladder
polyps, but given the accuracy and lower cost of abdominal US, ultrasonography remains the preferred
imaging modality. Gallbladder polyps can be classified as either pseudopolyps, which include cholesterol
polyps, focal adenomyosis, hyperplastic polyps, and inflammatory polyps, or true polyps, which include

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
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