Prevalence, Morphology and Chemical Composition of Gallstones in 150 Cholecystectomised Patients

Abstract

ABSTRACT::BACKGROUND:Gallstones are a major cause of morbidity worldwide, and cholecystectomy is the most commonlyperformed abdominal surgery in medicine. Gallstone-induced complications have a limited andoverlapping pattern of clinical presentation. In this article, morphology, composition of gallstones as wellas diagnosis and therapeutic options employed in their management are reviewed.OBJECTIVE:The study is to defin the different types of gallstones,and to identify their characteristics and chemicalcoemposition in 150 patientsPATIENTS AND METHODS:A retrospective study was performed on one hundred and fifty patients who were subjected tocholecystectomy during the period from January 1992 to January 2007, in the gastro-enterology &hepatology center and Al-Mustansyria Private Hospital in Baghdad by one consultant surgeon.RESULTS:The female: male ratio was 4:1 and the peak age group was that between 41-50 years. Thirteen percent ofpatients required explorations of the common bile duct (CBD), 72.7% of them were jaundiced, and 27.3%of those who had CBD exploration were not jaundiced. Ninety point seven percent of cholecystectomieswere performed for calculus cholecystitis and 9.3% were for acalculus cholecystitis.Of the 136 patients with calculus cholecystitis, 19.9% had a solitary stone, and 32.4% had 2-10 stones; thehighest number of stones was 250. Forty nine percent of stones were less than one centimeter in size; withthe biggest stone being 4.5 cm in size.Unlike what is expected of "mixed stones ", they were not more than 30.9% of cases, while "cholesterolstones "constituting 40.4% of cases." pigment stones" constituted only 8.8% of stones; with "combinedstones" constituting 17.6% of cases.CONCLUSION:There is an increased prevalence of gallstones in females and the frequency of gallstones increases withage in both sexes.In this article, there has been recognized three types of gallstones, cholesterol, mixed and pigment (blackand brown) stones. The cholesterol stones account for more than 40% (the highest percentage ofgallstones in the study).

Keywords

gallstones