Intraoperative hypertensive crisis in a dog with functional paraganglioma of the gall bladder.

A 15-year-old spayed female mongrel presented with anorexia and an abdominal mass. The mass originated from the gall bladder and was surgically resected along with divisionectomy of the central hepatic division. Paroxysmal hypertension and tachycardia were noted during manipulation of the mass. Following resection, arterial blood pressure decreased significantly. Histopathological analysis confirmed a diagnosis of neuroendocrine neoplasm. Immunohistochemical staining for synaptophysin and chromogranin A yielded diffuse and strong positive results, while gastrin was positive in only 10% of the cells. The preoperative elevated concentrations of catecholamine in the urinalysis showed a marked decrease after surgery. Based on these findings, the tumour was diagnosed as a functional paraganglioma of the gall bladder. The patient has undergone regular thoracic radiographs and ultrasound examinations and, until 431 days after surgery, has shown no signs of metastases or recurrences. Based on our literature search, we report the first case of functional paraganglioma of the gall bladder in a dog.

Clinical relationship between histopathological necrotic/partial necrotic findings and disease condition of gallbladder mucoceles in dogs.

Gallbladder mucocele (GM) is a common extrahepatic biliary disease recognized in dogs and is defined as the expansion and extension of the gallbladder by an accumulation of semi-solid bile or bile acid. Histopathological diagnosis of necrotizing cholecystitis and transmural coagulative necrosis of the gallbladder wall shows poor prognosis. Conversely, histopathological diagnosis with partial necrotic findings is often achieved. We hypothesized that histopathological partial necrosis of the gallbladder wall is the primary lesion of necrotic cholecystitis or transmural ischemic necrosis. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between histopathological necrosis/ partial necrosis findings and their clinical conditions. We retrospectively analyzed 55 dogs diagnosed with GM that had undergone cholecystectomy at the Yamaguchi University Animal Medical Center. The group with histopathological necrosis/partial necrosis of the gallbladder wall showed elevated levels of preoperative white blood cells, alanine transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyltransferase, total bilirubin, and C-reactive protein compared to the non-necrotic group. Partial necrosis of the gallbladder wall may affect the progression of the disease and hematological abnormalities. Additionally, all death cases until 2 weeks were included in the histopathological necrosis/partial necrosis group. In this study, we found that poor prognosis factors were associated with partial necrosis of the gallbladder wall. Furthermore, these cases of partial necrosis showed elevated levels of blood test parameters. These results suggest that necrosis of the gallbladder wall is associated with poor prognosis and poor pathophysiological conditions.