Gallstones and diabetes: An ominous association

Abstract The data supplied by eighty-six diabetic and 395 nondiabetic patients admitted to the Los Angeles County Hospital for the management of cholelithiasis and its complications have been evaluated. Gross mortality was fivefold greater in the diabetic group. Deaths, almost exclusively, resulted in patients admitted for emergency treatment of complications of cholelithiasis. In the “sensitive” age group, fifty-one to sixty-five years, the mortality among the diabetics was almost twentyfold greater than that of the nondiabetics. As a result of the analysis of this data, two policies are recommended for diabetic patients with cholelithiasis. First, early cholecystostomy should be employed more often for acute cholecystitis. Second, prophylactic cholecystectomy should be performed on most diabetics before they attain older age.