Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2024; 12(18): 3403-3409
Published online Jun 26, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i18.3403
Follow-up study of gallbladder stones in 44 children
Jian-Xiong Yu, Zhi-Zhong Jiang, Yuan-Hao Cai, Lin Zhou, Bin Cai
Jian-Xiong Yu, Zhi-Zhong Jiang, Yuan-Hao Cai, Lin Zhou, Bin Cai, Department of Pediatric, The Firs Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai 20000, China
Author contributions: Yu JX and Cai B designed the study and performed the experiments; Jiang ZZ and Cai YH collected the data; Jiang ZZ, Cai YH and Zhou L analyzed the data; Yu JX and Cai B prepared the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethic Committee of The Firs Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to report relevant to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Cai, BMed, Doctor, Department of Pediatric, The Firs Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, No. 168 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 20000, China. drcaibin2023@163.com
Received: March 12, 2024
Revised: April 27, 2024
Accepted: May 17, 2024
Published online: June 26, 2024
Processing time: 98 Days and 1.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Cholesterol stones affect a certain subpopulation of children. Concerns have been raised on the impact of gallbladder surgery on the growth of children and adolescents.

AIM

To study the population characteristics, clinical features, treatment, and prognosis of gallstones in children.

METHODS

The clinical data of 44 children with gallstones admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from August 2009 to August 2021 were collected, the children were followed up by telephone to monitor their prognoses. The follow-up ended in August 2023. The shortest follow-up time was 2 years and 6 months, whereas the longest was 13 years and 11 months. The population characteristics, general clinical characteristics, and treatments were retrospectively analyzed. The children were divided according to whether they underwent surgical gallbladder removal into an operation group (n = 28) and a non-operation group (n = 16), The effects of surgical gallbladder resection on the growth and development of children were analyzed.

RESULTS

The male–female ratio in the population was 6:5 and 84.09% of the children had onset in adolescence. Furthermore, 29.55% of the children were overweight or obese. The study identified 26 cases with metabolic abnormalities, 9 with hemolytic anemia, and 4 with choledochal cyst. Of the population, 68.18% had recurrent symptomatic cholecystolithiasis. Surgical treatment accounted for 63.64%, with laparoscopic cholecystectomy accounting for 71.43% of surgical treatment. No significant differences were observed in symptoms and complications between the surgery and non-surgery groups. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the two groups in the attainment of genetic height target and the rightward shift of height curve during follow-up.

CONCLUSION

The sex characteristics of gallstones in children were not observed. Most gallstones occurred in adolescents and rarely in young children. A considerable proportion of children have inborn causes, which are often concurrent with metabolic abnormalities and hemolytic anemia. Most children had recurrent symptomatic gallstones. Surgical treatment, especially laparoscopic cholecystectomy, is still the main treatment for gallstones in children. Surgical treatment did not affect the growth and development of children who underwent gallstone removal.

Keywords: Gallstones in children, Clinical characteristics, Growth and development, Operation, Clinical features

Core Tip: In this study, we investigated the population of children with gallstones to determine the population characteristics, clinical features, treatment, and prognosis. The sex characteristics of gallstones in children were not observed, and most gallstones occurred in older children. Relevant symptoms may be recurrent. Surgical treatment, especially laparoscopic cholecystectomy, is still the main treatment for gallstones in children. However, surgical treatment did not affect the growth and development of children who underwent gallstone removal.