Cholelithiasis in children in a Chinese hospital: report of 52 cases.

Over a period of 22 years (1958-1980), 52 children with cholelithiasis were treated in the Hunan Medical College Hospital in Ghangsha, China. Enteric helminthiasis is a common endemic disease in China and the countries of the Far East. Common in this region also is biliary ascariasis, which can precipitate an abdominal emergency in children. Both these conditions make differentiation of primary acute cholecystitis from the acute cholecystitis that is a complication of biliary ascariasis difficult in children. But, whatever the etiology of the disease, cholelithiasis was confirmed in all 52 children, an incidence of 1:62.4 the frequency of this disease in adults, or eight times higher than that which occurs in Western countries. Table 1 shows the distribution according to sex and age in our patients.