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GALLSTONES AT AUTOPSY AND CHOLECYSTECTOMY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY*
Author(s) -
Vtetta. L.,
Sali A.,
Chou S. T.,
Fleming H.,
Little P.,
Elzarka A.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1988.tb06194.x
Subject(s) - gallstones , cholecystectomy , medicine , autopsy , gastroenterology , biliary sludge , asymptomatic , gallbladder , cholesterol , biliary tract
An examination of 613 post‐mortems gave a prevalence of biliary disease at autopsy of 36.5%. higher than reported previously in Australia. This consisted of an asymptomatic gallstone prevalence of 18.9%. with a further 5.78 of the autopsies having granular biliary sludge and 11.9% having had a previous cholecystec‐toniy. Although the rate of occurrence of cholesterol gallstones was approximately half that of the pigment gallstones and pigment biliary sludge combined. no significant association between the sex of the postmortems and stone type was observed at autopsy (χ 2 1 = 0.1; P > 0.05). The ratio of biliary disease between females and males was approximately 2:1. Gallstones and biliary sludge from 310 cholecystectomy patients showed that cholesterol gallstones were approximately twice as common in men, and approximately six times as common in women than pigment gallstones. In this group of patients there was a significant association between the sex of the patient and the rate of occurrence of stone type. The rate of occurrence of cholesterol gallstones was significantly higher than pigment gallstones in both the males and females at cholecystectomy (χ 2 1 = 18.97; P < 0.0001). A female to male ratio of approximately 2:1 was also observed. A statistically significantly higher rate of pigmented biliary disease was observed at autopsy than at cholecystectomy. (χ 2 1 = 101.0; P< 0.0001). Analyses on biliary sludge. a filterable, fine granular pigmented material in bile. suggest that it may be the direct precursor for a number of different gallstone types.