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Abstract

ABSTRACT:: BACKGROUND: Gallstones are a major cause of morbidity worldwide, and cholecystectomy is the most commonly performed abdominal surgery in medicine. Gallstone-induced complications have a limited and overlapping pattern of clinical presentation. In this article, morphology, composition of gallstones as well as 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 chemical coemposition in 150 patients PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on one hundred and fifty patients who were subjected to cholecystectomy 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 of patients 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 cholecystectomies were 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; the highest number of stones was 250. Forty nine percent of stones were less than one centimeter in size; with the 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 "cholesterol stones "constituting 40.4% of cases." pigment stones" constituted only 8.8% of stones; with "combined stones" constituting 17.6% of cases. CONCLUSION: There is an increased prevalence of gallstones in females and the frequency of gallstones increases with age in both sexes. In this article, there has been recognized three types of gallstones, cholesterol, mixed and pigment (black and brown) stones. The cholesterol stones account for more than 40% (the highest percentage of gallstones in the study).

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