[Characteristics of pediatric patients with biliary lithiasis. Immediate post-operative evolution]

Biliary lithiasis is a disease that is rarely diagnosed in children; in Mexico, its prevalence is less than 1 %. Due to the scarcity of investigations addressing epidemiology and surgical outcomes in pediatric patients, our purpose was to establish the epidemiology and post-operative course in children with biliary lithiasis.

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted. All patients with a diagnosis of biliary lithiasis treated over a 6-year period with complete data in their medical records were included.

Thirty children with biliary lithiasis with a mean of 12.5 years of age were analyzed; 66.7 % were female and 63 % were older than 11 years. Etiology was idiopathic in 93 %. The most important symptoms were abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting (77 %). 100% of the patients were diagnosed with ultrasonography. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed in 60 % of the cases and no differences were observed in terms of complications compared with open surgery. The advantage for laparoscopic cholecystectomy was a reduced fasting and hospitalization time.

Biliary lithiasis occurs more frequently in adolescent females, hemolytic causes are rare and in most cases no cause was identified. More epidemiological studies are needed in order to understand the natural history of the disease in children.