Objectives: Cholecystectomy is the established treatment for symptomatic gall stones and cholecystitis. In our locality, all cholecystectomy specimens are routinely sent for histopathological examination regardless of the presence or absence of preoperative or intraoperative suspicion of malignancy. This has led to an increased workload for the histopathologists. This study was conducted to assess the necessity for routine histopathological examination of all cholecystectomy specimens and to call attention to a selective criteria for sending gallbladders to the histopathological examination. Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of computerized histopathological reports of 1176 cholecystectomy specimens and the available patients clinical data for the last ten years. Results: Analysis of 1176 cholecystectomy specimens during the last ten years, revealed five cases of primary invasive adenocarcinoma (0.42%) and one case of carcinoma in situ. Of the five invasive adenocarcinomas, three were stage pT3. One case was stage pT2 and one case was stage pT1b. In all cases of invasive adenocarcinoma, there was a clinical suspicion of malignancy before or during surgery with detectable macroscopical abnormalities that encouraged the surgeon to send the gall bladder for histopathological examination. Conclusion: Invasive adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder is associated with detectable macroscopical abnormalities in all cases. Hence histopathological examination could be restricted to the macroscopically abnormal looking gall bladders. Such a selection will save time, cost and burden on the histopathologists without affecting the patients' safety.

Introduction: Extramedullary hematopoiesis in the adrenal gland is rare and is usually discovered incidentally. Thalassemia is one of the hematological disorders in which extramedullary hematopoiesis could be seen in many organs including adrenals Case report: Our patient was a nineteen years old Iraqi man. He is a known case of thalassemia major since the age of 5 months. He was discovered to has a right suprarenal mass by ultrasound examination as part of investigation for nocturia. The mass was surgically excised and the histopathological examination revealed extramedullary hematopoiesis. Conclusion: Awareness should be raised to consider the diagnosis of extramedullary hematopoiesis in any thalassemic patient with a tissue mass

Introduction: Meningiomas are tumors of the central nervous system originating from the meningothelial tissues, the arachnoid cap cells of the cranium and spinal cord. According to the WHO classification system, grade 1 meningiomas are of nine subtypes. Xanthomatous meningioma is a rare histological variant of meningioma belong to the subtype "Metaplastic meningioma". The Meningioma with a predominantly xanthomatous cellular changes with lipid-laden vacuolated cytoplasm is classified as ''xanthomatous meningioma'' Case report: A 61 year old patient presented with headache, disorientation and hemiparesis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows large right parietal enhancing dural based convexity meningioma. The tumor resected enblock and the histological examination revealed features of classical meningioma with predominant areas of xanthomatous changes. Immunostaining for epithelial membrane antigen and vimentin wase positive in both xanthomatous foamy cells and meningothelial areas. GFAP was negative. CD 68 was positive in few scattered cells in the xanthomatous areas. Ki-67 index was 1% in the highly cellular area. The final histopathological diagnosis was xanthomatous meningioma, WHO grade I. Conclusion: Xanthomatous meningioma is a rare variant of meningioma belongs to the subtype metaplastic meningioma. We present the case because it is an extremely rare worldwide.

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