# Port-site metastasis

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/port-site-metastasis/  
OnCo record `port-site-metastasis` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer growing in the small keyhole wounds of a laparoscopic operation, seeded when a gallbladder containing an unsuspected cancer was pulled out through them. It was once seen in up to one in five incidental gallbladder cancers; it is now about one in ten, and cutting out the old port sites at the second operation does not improve survival.

## Summary

Port-site metastasis after laparoscopic cholecystectomy for an unsuspected gallbladder cancer was reported in 14 to 30 percent of cases in early series. A systematic review of 27 papers found the incidence fell from 18.6 percent before 2000 to 10.3 percent since (Berger-Richardson 2017), with retrieval bags, avoidance of perforation and fewer extractions through the umbilicus credited. Perforation or bile spillage at the first operation raises the risk of peritoneal dissemination, and the risk of peritoneal carcinomatosis rises with each T category (Soreide 2019). Routine excision of the port sites at re-resection was once standard but has no effect on survival and is no longer recommended (Soreide 2019; Aloia 2015 does not include it in re-resection). Isolated port-site disease is still a form of metastatic recurrence and is treated as such.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: Port-site recurrence; Trocar-site metastasis; Abdominal wall recurrence after laparoscopy
- Tags: gallbladder; biliary

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laparoscopy
- Berger-Richardson, Surgery 2017: trends in port-site metastasis after laparoscopic resection of incidental gallbladder cancer: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2016.08.007
- Soreide, Br J Surg 2019: systematic review of incidental gallbladder cancer after cholecystectomy: https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.11035
- AHPBA expert consensus statement on gallbladder cancer (Aloia, HPB 2015): https://doi.org/10.1111/hpb.12444

## Connected records

- cancers: [Gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gallbladder/), [Incidental gallbladder cancer (found after cholecystectomy)](https://onco.cc/cancers/incidental-gallbladder-cancer/)
- terms: [Peritoneal metastasis](https://onco.cc/terms/peritoneal-metastasis/), [Radical (extended) cholecystectomy](https://onco.cc/terms/radical-cholecystectomy/)
- technologies: [Surgery for gallbladder cancer: simple versus radical cholecystectomy, re-resection and lymphadenectomy](https://onco.cc/technologies/gallbladder-cancer-surgery/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/port-site-metastasis.json