[Clinical and epidemiological analysis of gallstone patients focused on 25-year experience of surgically treated patients].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the epidemiologic changing patterns of gallstone diseases in Korea during past 25 years.


METHODS
A total of 5,671 gallstone patients who underwent surgery in our center during 1981-2005 were analyzed. The patients were divided into 5 periods: period I (1981-1985, n=831), period II (1986-1990, n=888), period III (1991-1995, n=1,040), period IV (1996-2000, n=1,261) and period V (2001-2005, n=1,651). Korean literatures published from 1961 to 2005 were reviewed to elucidate the nationwide trends of gallstone diseases.


RESULTS
Number of gallstone disease cases were gradually increasing. Female predominance was not noted (male/female ratio, 1.07-1.37). Patients with common bile duct (CBD) stone were older than those with gallbladder (GB) stone or intrahepatic duct (IHD) stone. During past 25 years, relative proportion of GB stone cases increased from 53.0% to 89.7%, while that of CBD stone cases decreased from 68.0% to 15.1%. Relative proportion of IHD stone patients remained stationary. In rural areas, tendency of increasing GB stone and decreasing CBD stone disappeared since period III. However, in urban areas, these tendencies remained till period V. Relative frequency of IHD stone group remained unchanged in two areas. The body mass indexes of the GB stone group, CBD stone group, and IHD stone group were higher than that of the average population.


CONCLUSIONS
In gallstone disease, increasing tendency of GB stone and decreasing tendency of CBD stone in rural area have disappeared. However, relative frequency of IHD stone is still high in Korea.
Yang
Sung Hoon
SH
Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Seung Eun
SE
Jang
Jin-Young
JY
Ryu
Ji Kon
JK
Kim
Yong Tae
YT
Yun
Young-Beum
YB
Kim
Sun-Whe
SW
D015992:Body Mass Index; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D042882:Gallstones / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies