Management of cholelithiasis in Italian children: a national multicenter study.
2008
AIM: To evaluate the management of Italian children with cholelithiasis observed at Pediatric and Surgical Departments linked to Italian Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition.
METHODS: One-hundred-eighty children (90 males, median age at diagnosis 7.3 years; range, 0-18 years) with echographic evidence of cholelithiasis were enrolled in the study; the data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire sent to participating centers.
RESULTS: One hundred seventeen patients were treated with ursodeoxycholic acid; in 8 children dissolution of gallstones was observed, but the cholelithiasis recurred in 3 of them. Sixty-five percent of symptomatic children treated became asymptomatic. Sixty-four patients were treated with cholecystectomy and in only 2 cases a postoperative complication was reported. Thirty-four children received no treatment and were followed with clinical and echographic controls; in no case the development of complications was reported.
CONCLUSION: The therapeutic strategies were extremely heterogeneous. Ursodeoxycholic acid was ineffective in dissolution of gallstones but it had a positive effect on the symptoms. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was confirmed to be an efficacy and safe treatment for pediatric gallstones.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
30
References
48
Citations
NaN
KQI