Guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of gallbladder carcinoma (2015 edition)

To standardize the procedures of diagnosis and treatment of gallbladder carcinoma (GBC), the Biliary Surgery Group of Surgery Branch of Chinese Medical Association (CMA) worked out a comprehensive guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of GBC. The guideline is based on the principles of evidencebased medicine, detailing the epidemiological factors, etiologies, pathological assessment, TNM staging, diagnostic considerations, preoperative and intraoperative evaluation, treatment of GBC and followup. The guideline emphasizes the preoperative judgement on the staging and resectability of GBC in accordance with multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3dimensional reconstruction plus with liver function evaluation. It also provides guidance for the GBC treatment according to findings of intraoperative ultrasound, quick freezing sections and lymph node biopsy (13a, 16). The principle of radical resection of GBC was conducted by selecting the extents of liver resection, lymph nodes dissection and extrahepatic bile duct resection respectively based on T staging, lymph node biopsy and pathological examination of resection margins of cystic duct.