Introduction

Acute biliary pancreatitis is associated with significant morbidity and a mortality rate of 5%.1 The incidence of biliary pancreatitis is increasing with 5% per year.2,3 It is estimated that, in developed countries, at least one in every ten adults carries gallstones.4–6 In asymptomatic gallstone carriers, the annual risk of developing biliary pancreatitis is up to 0.2%.7–9 Furthermore, there is a 0.2% annual risk of developing common bile duct (CBD) stones and a 0.3% risk of acute cholecystitis.10,11 In symptomatic gallstone carriers, the risks of developing complications are much higher.12

Although cholecystectomy in asymptomatic gallstone carriers would prevent symptoms and complicated gallstone disease, (laparoscopic) cholecystectomy is also associated with morbidity and even mortality.13 In a decision analysis study using a Markov model and Monte Carlo simulations, we found that, in most health care situations, prophylactic cholecystectomy in asymptomatic gallstone carriers did not improve outcome.14,15 Strategies to prevent biliary pancreatitis should, therefore, rather focus on the early cholecystectomy in symptomatic carriers.16–18 Surprisingly, it is virtually unknown what proportion of patients with biliary pancreatitis is symptomatic prior to the onset of the complication. Also, it is unknown to what extent patient’s and doctor’s delay due to poor recognition of gallstone-related symptoms in symptomatic patients are present.19

The aims of the current study were to investigate in a large group of patients with biliary pancreatitis and other complicated as well as uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease: (1) the occurrence of “warning” episodes of biliary colic and (2) patient’s and doctor’s delays in symptomatic patients.

Patients and Methods

Patients

All consecutive patients admitted with a first episode of biliary pancreatitis or CBD obstruction or acute cholecystitis in a university medical center and an affiliated large teaching hospital in the period 2003–2005 were eligible for inclusion. A parallel consecutive cohort of patients who visited the outpatient clinic because of uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease served as a disease–control group. Patients who refused informed consent, were under 18 years of age, with previous cholecystectomy, with a history of complicated gallstone disease, or with gallbladder carcinoma were excluded. Patients were also excluded if adequate history taking was not possible (due to inability to speak Dutch, German, or English or mental disability). All patients gave informed consent.

Data Collection

From all enrolled patients, a detailed history was taken at admission by one of two investigators (MGHB, NGV). When patients were considered to be too ill or painful for adequate history taking, they were visited again after their condition had improved. The following data were collected: age, sex, date of first biliary colic, visit to general practitioner for episodes of biliary colic, referral for ultrasound or specialist evaluation by general practitioner, numbers of episodes of biliary colic. Results of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and presence on the waiting list for cholecystectomy at the time of the complication were retrieved from hospital records. Hospital stay, potential complicated course of the disease, and in-hospital mortality were obtained from hospital records.

Definitions

For the purpose of this study, complicated gallstone disease was restricted to acute biliary pancreatitis, symptomatic CBD stones, and acute cholecystitis. Acute pancreatitis was defined as severe abdominal pain of acute onset and elevated serum amylase or lipase level at least three times the upper limit of normal. A biliary genesis was assumed when, in the absence of alcohol abuse or other factors known to predispose to pancreatitis, gallbladder/CBD stones or sludge were detected by abdominal ultrasonography or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), serum liver enzymes and/or bilirubin were elevated, or when the CBD was dilated (>8 mm).14 Symptomatic CBD stones were defined as the presence of abdominal symptoms, fever, or jaundice in combination with CBD/gallbladder stones or sludge detected by ultrasonography in combination with dilation of the CBD (>8 mm) or an elevation of serum liver enzymes and bilirubin with the result that ERCP was required. Serum amylase and lipase values had to be normal. Acute cholecystitis was defined as biliary pain of at least 2-h duration with fever and upper abdominal pain in the presence of stones or sludge in the gallbladder detected on abdominal ultrasonography with normal serum amylase and lipase levels. The diagnosis “acute cholecystitis” was always confirmed during surgery. A biliary colic was defined as one or more episodes of upper abdominal pain, lasting at least 30 min but less than 6 h.20 Uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease was defined as one or more episodes of biliary colic in the absence of complicated gallstone disease as defined above. Radiating pain and urge to move were not considered mandatory.

Since biliary pain may also occur at the onset of a complication, the patient was required to have had a symptom-free interval of at least 7 days between the first colic and the complication before classification in the group complicated disease with “warning” episodes of colic was allowed. General practitioner delay was defined as at least one visit to a general practitioner because of a biliary colic without referral for ultrasound or to a specialist for further evaluation or, in case of previous diagnosis of gallbladder stones, for cholecystectomy. Patient delay was defined as at least one biliary colic without subsequent visit within 7 days to a general practitioner or emergency department.

Statistical Analysis

Categorical data were compared using Pearson’s chi square or Fisher’s exact test as appropriate. If appropriate, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) are provided. All continuous data are expressed as medians with range. Continuous variables were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis, or analysis of variance (ANOVA), as appropriate. No correction for multiple testing was applied. When probability was <0.05 for the Kruskal–Wallis test, the Mann–Whitney U test was used as a post hoc test to compare the three groups of patients with complicated gallstone disease with the symptomatic group. For the ANOVA test, the Fisher’s least significant difference test was used as a post hoc test in cases of probability of <0.05 with ANOVA. In cases of positively skewed, non-Gaussian data, the 75th percentile (P75) is represented as upper range. Statistical significance was defined as two-tailed P value < 0.05. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 12.01 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).

Results

Patients

A total of 412 patients were screened for inclusion. Reasons for nonenrollment are summarized in Fig. 1. Finally, 350 consecutive patients were included; 175 consecutive patients with first clinical presentation of gallstone complications: acute biliary pancreatitis (n = 53), symptomatic CBD stones (n = 64), and acute cholecystitis (n = 58) and 175 consecutive patients scheduled for elective cholecystectomy because of uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease. Patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. Patients with complicated gallstone disease were more often males, were older, and had less often a family history of gallstone disease compared to patients with uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease. Eight patients (5%) in the complicated gallstone disease groups had developed a complication while awaiting elective cholecystectomy for a median of 24 days (range 3–75 days).

Figure 1
figure 1

Flow diagram of gallstone patients referred for pain of potentially biliary origin.

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Table 1 Characteristics of Patients with Complicated and Uncomplicated, Symptomatic Gallstone Disease
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“Warning” Episodes of Biliary Colic

Of the patients with complicated gallstone disease, 57% (100 of 175, 95%CI = 50–65%) experienced “warning” episodes of biliary colic (biliary pancreatitis 58%, symptomatic CBD stones 67%, and cholecystitis 45%, P = 0.04; Table 1). Patients with symptomatic CBD stones had “warning” episodes more often than patients with cholecystitis (P = 0.01). Patients with biliary pancreatitis did not differ in the incidence of “warning” episodes of biliary colic from patients with CBD stones and/or cholecystitis. As expected, patients with uncomplicated symptomatic disease more often experienced “warning” episodes of biliary colic (94%, 164 of 175) than patients with complicated disease (Table 1).

“Warning” episodes of colic were experienced in the epigastric region by 53% of patients. Although patients with pancreatitis and symptomatic CBD stones predominantly experienced epigastric pain (rather than pain in the right upper quadrant), the difference with acute cholecystitis and symptomatic uncomplicated gallstones was not statistically significant (Table 2).

Table 2 Characteristics of Biliary Pain in Patients with “Warning” Biliary Symptoms
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Delays in Patients with “Warning” Episodes of Colic

Of the patients with complicated gallstone disease and “warning” episodes of colic, 87% of patients (87 of 100) experienced patient’s and/or general practitioner’s delays (Table 3). Patients with a “warning” colic experienced more doctor’s delay if the maximum pain was located in the epigastric region (51%, 70 of 136) compared to the right upper quadrant (38%, 45 of 118, P = 0.03). Patient delay was not associated with the location of pain (P = 0.39).

Table 3 Delays in Diagnosis and Treatment of Gallstone Patients with “Warning” Colics
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Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Fifty-one patients (15%) underwent endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract because of upper abdominal pain prior to the diagnosis of (un)complicated gallstone disease. In eight patients (16%), minor abnormalities (gastritis or esophagitis grade A) were detected during endoscopy.

Outcome

Ten out of 53 (19%) patients with biliary pancreatitis developed necrotizing pancreatitis requiring a median hospital stay of 40 days (range 8–143 days). Six patients developed (multi)organ failure and were admitted to the intensive care unit. Five of these six and one other patient ultimately underwent surgical necrosectomy for infected necrotizing pancreatitis, albeit without mortality. Four of the ten patients with necrotizing pancreatitis had experienced a “warning” colic, and all four developed infected necrotizing pancreatitis requiring surgical intervention (median hospital stay 130 days). None of these patients died. One patient died after elective cholecystectomy for uncomplicated, symptomatic gallstone disease. Total in-hospital mortality was 0.3% (1 of 350).

Discussion

This study is the first to evaluate the incidence of “warning” biliary colic and the extent of patient and general practitioner delay in patients admitted for biliary pancreatitis and other forms of complicated gallstone disease. The most important findings were that approximately half of patients with pancreatitis had experienced (a median of 5) “warning” episodes of biliary colic during a period of 5 months prior to onset of pancreatitis, very similar to other complicated gallstone diseases. In the majority of these patients, various delays had occurred, which were slightly but significantly more often observed in patients with complicated than with uncomplicated gallstone disease. Up to 40% of patients did not visit their general practitioner after a biliary colic. In addition, patients who visited the general practitioner because of biliary symptoms were often not referred for ultrasound, further specialist evaluation, or surgery. Particularly, epigastric localization of pain, as experienced by over half of gallstone patients in the present series, was associated with general practitioner delay. In patients with epigastric localization of clear episodes of biliary colic, general practitioners frequently consider gastric conditions as the underlying cause. In contrast, patients apparently exhibit no higher frequency of visits to their general practitioners for gallstone-related right upper quadrant pains vs epigastric pains since, in the current study, location of the pain was not associated with patient delays.

This study presents data on a large group of patients collected over a relatively short period of time, which minimizes potential effects of shifts in treatment protocols. The optimal study design would have been a prospective cohort series in asymptomatic gallstone carriers. However, due to the low annual incidence of complicated gallstone disease in asymptomatic gallstone carriers (approximately 0.7%), some 25,000 gallstone carriers would have to be followed up for a year in order to identify 175 patients with complicated gallstone disease as included in the present series. Although a prospective study design would minimize “recall bias,” the authors feel that such bias is not likely to have played a major role in this series due to the generally vivid recollection of the intense experience of a biliary colic in our patients.

The purpose of including in the present study a group of symptomatic uncomplicated gallstone patients was not to compare them with the complicated patients for frequency of preceding colics (a priori approaching 100% in the symptomatic uncomplicated group). Rather, we aimed to compare patient’s and doctor’s delays in these groups. In line with the present findings, previous screening studies demonstrated that mid-upper abdominal pain occurs with equal frequency as right upper abdominal pain in patients with symptomatic gallstones.17,21 We are aware of one other study that had addressed “warning” episodes of colic in patients with complicated gallstone disease in a retrospective survey of a state-wide database in California. Similar to our findings, approximately half of the patients with complicated gallstone disease in that study had experienced episodes of biliary colic during a period of 142 days prior to cholecystectomy.22 The authors did not assess the reasons for delayed surgery in these patients. In line with the current data, advanced age and male gender were previously found to be associated with complicated gallstone disease.14.

Several conclusions and recommendations can be drawn from the present study. First, approximately half the patients with biliary pancreatitis and other complicated gallstone disease do not experience “warning” episodes of biliary colic. In these patients, complications cannot be prevented by a policy of “early cholecystectomy in cases of preceding episodes of colic.” Second, patient delay is common and may be reduced by increasing the awareness of the general public for the “warning” aspect of abdominal colicky pain. Third, general practitioner delay is common and may be reduced by increasing awareness of the relation between epigastric pain and gallstone disease. Fourth, the waiting time for elective cholecystectomy should be kept to a minimum in order to guarantee early intervention after diagnosis of “warning” episodes of colic in patients who are fit enough to undergo cholecystectomy.