Clinical profile of patients with gallstone disease
Author(s): Dr. Padmanabh R Bhat
Abstract: The potential gallstone patient probably secretes a bile whose mean daily bile composition contains excessive cholesterol. The gallbladder bile from these patients thus becomes super saturated with cholesterol. If the level of supersaturation is very marked, precipitation of cholesterol may occur spontaneously. If only a moderate degree of supersaturation is present, nucleation may be necessary to initiate precipitation. After admission a detailed history was taken and clinical examination carried out. Various investigations were done to assess the patient. All 25 cases were subjected to laparotomy and all of them were evaluated before surgery with Ultrasonography. All patients had cholecystectomy as the main procedure. The decision regarding exploration of CBD was made on the basis of clinical, investigation and operative criteria. The commonest symptom in our series was pain abdomen (96%), followed by vomiting 32%, dyspespsia (24%), Jaundice (16%), fever (32%).