Objective To study the clinical course and clinicopathological features of para-aortic lymph node metastases in patients with gallbladder cancer.Methods Forty-two patients with gallbladder cancer who underwent radical resection combined with para-aortic lymphadenectomy at the Mianyang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2001 to December 2013 were retrospectively studied.The survival rates of the para-aortic lymph node metastasis group were compared with the negative para-aortic lymph node group of patients.Para-aortic lymph node metastasis as well as clinical features were correlated with survival.Results No one died within the perioperative period.The total complication rate was 24.0％,and there was no significant difference between the positive para-aortic lymph node group and the negative group (P ＞0.05).The rate of para-aortic lymph node metastasis on histopathology was 21.4％ (9/42),which was positively correlated with tumor depth of invasion and negatively correlated with the degree of differentiation (P ＜ 0.01).The 1-,2-,and 3-year survival rates of the positive para-aortic lymph node group were significantly inferior to the negative group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Dissection of para-aortic lymph nodes in patients with gallbladder cancer was safe and feasible.Lymphadenectomy did not improve the longterm survival rates of patients with para-aortic lymph node involvement metastases.The extent of lymph node dissection for gallbladder cancer should be decided by intraoperative biopsy.