Prevalence of obesity and cholelithiasis in pediatric patients of San Rafael hospital de Tunja during the years 2010-2019

Prevalence of obesity and colelitiasis in pediatric patients of San Rafael hospital de Tunja during the years 2010-2019

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of overweight in pediatric patients with cholelithiasis treated at the San Rafael de Tunja hospital during the years 2010 - 2019.

Materials and methods: This is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study, in which the characteristics of cholelithiasis were evaluated in patients under 18 years of age. Sociodemographic, clinical, imaging, and therapeutic variables were evaluated.

Results: 84 clinical records of patients diagnosed with cholelithiasis were reviewed in a period between 2010 to 2019. A percentage of 69.1% were female and 30.9% were male. The average age of the patients was 15.07 years, the prevalence of overweight was 35.7%, and 21.4% was obesity. The most frequent manifestations were nausea (85.71%), vomiting (84.52%), and Murphy's sign positive (83.33%).  In 76% of the patients, the gallstones were unique since these had an average size of 7.45 mm (with a minimum of 1 mm and a maximum of 25 mm). 26.1% of the patients received conservative treatment while 73.8% of them were treated by surgery. From these, 50% of the cases were treated by open surgery and the rest by laparoscopic procedure, of which 2.43% required intraoperative conversion. Finally, the most common complications presented were liver abscess in 2.38% and pancreatitis in 4.76% of the patients.

Conclusions: More than the half of children with cholelithiasis were obese (21.4%) and overweight (35.7%), which indicates a public health problem that leads to an increased health risk in this population since they are susceptible to a large set of pathologies associated with this comorbidity.