Cholecystitis: the Ethiopian experience, a report of 712 operated cases from one of the referral hospitals.

This is a prospective study conducted from September 1991 to September 2000. Seven-hundred and twelve patients operated for acute and chronic cholecystitis were studied. The male to female ratios for elective and emergency admissions were 1:5 and 1:2.4, respectively. The mean age was 42.7 years. Acute cholecystitis accounted for 10.6% of the 712 cases. There were a total of 666 (93.5%) calculus and 46 (6.5%) acalculus cases. Empyema was seen in 77 (10.8%) patients and hydrops of the gallbladder in 35 (4.9%). Iatrogenic Common Bile Duct (CBD) injury was found to be more of a problem of the contracted gallbladder. In this study severe complications like gangrenous gallbladder, perforated gallbladder, suppurative cholangitis and subhepatic abscess were found more in males than in females. Calculus cholecystitis was found to be a common disease in Ethiopia, and that its features and prevalence as well as sex predilection compare well with reports from other areas. However the findings in this report were found to be different from the reports of the rest of the African Continent.