Spinal cord injury and cholelithiasis.

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is found to be related to increased prevalence of gallstones and acute acalculous cholecystitis. In this study we assessed the prevalence of cholelithiasis in male patients with SCI and the correlation of cholelithiasis with age and weight of patients, level of injury, as well as severity and duration of SCI.

Methods: One hundred male SCI patients (58 patients rated ASIA A or B and 42 rated ASIA C or D) aged more than 20 years (average 46.5 years) suffered from a spinal cord injury for more than one year. One hundred male volunteers served as controls without SCI and biliary diseases(age range 20-68 years; average 42.6 years). The two groups were subjected to ultrasonography of the gallbladder and biliary tract.

Results: The prevalence of cholelithiasis in the group of SCI patients and the control group was 26% and 10% respectively. Significant differences in the prevalence of cholelithiasis were found between the normal controls and SCI patients and between high and low-level injury (P<0.01). But the differences were not statistically significant when correlating the presence of cholelithiasis with the age and weight of the patients, the duration of SCI, and the severity of spinal lesion(P>0.05).

Conclusions: SCI represents a major risk factor for the development of cholelithiasis,especially in patients with high-level injury. Cholelithiasis in SCI patients is not related to their age and weight, the severity of spinal lesion, and the duration of spinal cord injury.