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Incidence and Risk Factors for Cholelithiasis After Bariatric Surgery

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A Correction to this article was published on 28 May 2019

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Abstract

Background

Obesity and rapid weight loss after bariatric surgery (BS) are independent risk factors for development of cholelithiasis (CL), a prevalent disease in the Chilean population. This study aimed to determine the incidence of CL in obese Chilean patients 12 months after BS and identify risk factors for development of gallstones.

Methods

Retrospective study of patients who underwent BS in 2014. Patients with preoperative negative abdominal ultrasound (US) for CL and follow-up for at least than 12 months were included. Patients underwent US at 6 months and 12 months. We analyzed sex, age, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, body mass index (BMI), surgical procedure, percentage of excess BMI loss (%EBMIL) at 6 months, and BMI at 6 months.

Results

Of 279 patients who underwent bariatric surgery during 2014, 66 had previous gallbladder disease and 176 met the inclusion criteria (82.6%), while 54.6% were female. The mean age was 37.8 ± 10.5 years and preoperative BMI was 37.5 kg/m2. BMI and %EBMIL at 6 months were 27.8 ± 3.3 kg/m2 and 77.9 ± 33.6%, respectively. At 12 months after BS, CL was found in 65 patients (36.9%). Hypertension turned out to be protective against occurrence of gallstones at 1 year with an OR 0.241.

Conclusions

Incidence of CL was up to one-third of the patients followed up for 12 months after BS. Excessive weight loss and other variables studied did not increase risk. Hypertension seems to be protective against gallstone formation, but this result needs further analysis.

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Change history

  • 28 May 2019

    Due to a metadata tagging error the name of author Andrés Esteban San Martín was indexed incorrectly. The author’s given name is Andrés Esteban and his family name is San Martín.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Waldo Aranda for his valuable contribution with statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center, DIPRECA Hospital, Vital Apoquindo 1200, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile

    Hernán M. Guzmán, Matías Sepúlveda & Hernán C. Guzmán

  2. Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército Libertador 141, Santiago, Chile

    Matías Sepúlveda, Andrés San Martin & Hernán C. Guzmán

  3. Hospital San Camilo, Miraflores 2085, San Felipe, Santiago, Chile

    Nicolás Rosso

  4. Escuela de Medicina, Universidad de Santiago, Av Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, Santiago, Chile

    Felipe Guzmán

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  1. Hernán M. Guzmán
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Correspondence to Matías Sepúlveda.

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The study was previously approved by the scientific ethics committee of that same institution.

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Guzmán, H.M., Sepúlveda, M., Rosso, N. et al. Incidence and Risk Factors for Cholelithiasis After Bariatric Surgery. OBES SURG 29, 2110–2114 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-019-03760-4

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