Prevalence and some selected characteristics of asymptomatic gallstones among pregnant women. A retrospective chart review

Abstract

Introduction During pregnancy, it is often associated with gallstones and biliary sludge. Gallstone disease is the second most common indication for non-obstetric surgical intervention in pregnancy. Methods A retrospective chart review was carried out to determine the prevalence and characteristics of asymptomatic gallstones among selected sample of pregnant women in a private hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Data was retrieved form the available records at hospitals from 2016 to 2022.There were 329 patients recode during the study period. An exclusion criteria was applied to select the subjects. Data pertains to demographic, haematological, bio-chemical and hepatobiliary sonography was retrieved. The study data were analysed using STATA (StataCorp LLC Texas, USA) software version 16 for Windows. Normality was determined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov’s test. Categorical variables like gallbladder status and blood group were presented using frequency tables. The mean values of age, gestational age, and gravidity were compared t-test and ANOVA. Gallbladder status was compared to age group, gravidity, trimester, and blood group using Chi-squared test. P values of <0.05 were considered significant. Results The study sample consists of 300 pregnant women records. The means age of pregnant mother with gall stone and sludge was statistically higher than the normal gallbladder. Multigravida was higher among the study sample (63%).The most of the study subject were in third trimester (68%). Majority (97%) had normal gallbladder, 2% had gallstones and 1% had sludge. A higher proportion of gallstones were identified among mothers age more than 30 years. Muliti-gravid had higher proportion of gallstones and sludge. The third trimester was identified as higher proportion of gallstones and sludge. All the cases who had gallstone and sludge were Blood group type “O”. Conclusion This sample shows that a higher proportion of gallstones and sludge were identified among mothers whose age more than 30 years, muliti-gravid, in their third trimester and blood group of type “O”. Further studies are needed to generalized this study finds to Sri Lankan setting.