Acalculous Cholecystitis In Intensive Care Unit Patients: Higher Incidence In Females And Prognostic Role Of Serial Sonographic Findings

Authors

Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background:
Acalculous cholecystitis is a common disability in critically ill patients which has 0.2-0.4% incidence in previous studies. The last researches believe that incidence in men is two to three times as high as women. One of the available and reliable modalities to diagnosis this disorder is sonography.
 Patients and Methods:
In this cross-sectional study we evaluated 50 patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Aliebn-Abitaleb hospital in Zahedan, Iran in 2015. Patients evaluated with portable sonography in early admission time and twice a week (until discharge or death) and biliary sludge, biliary stone, gallbladder edema, biliary tract dilation and radiologic murphy sign detected. Also, demographic data, underlying disease and Liver Function Test (LFT) obtained from the patients. Data analyzed with IBM SPSS version 19 and Fisher exact test and T-Test used to data analysis for qualitative and quantitative variables respectively.
 Results:
Twenty-five patients (50%) showed the evidences of the biliary sludge. This incidence for biliary stone, gallbladder edema, biliary tract dilation and radiologic murphy sign was 8 (16%), 2 (4%), 7 (14%) and 0 (0%) respectively. There was a significant relationship between female gender and biliary sludge and biliary distention (P-value < 0.05) and patients had higher incidence of biliary distension in longer admissions (P-value = 0.001). There was no statistically correlation between underlying disease, LFT and demographic data except gender (P-value >0.05).
 Conclusions:
Acalculous gallbladder disorders are very common in ICU admitted patients in Iran and should be considered specially in longtime and female ICU admitted patients.