Gall bladder diseases in Zimbabwe

A five-year study of patients treated for gall bladder disease in Harare was done. The aim of the study was to highlight the importance of the disease and its unusual presentation as compared to the typical European pattern. The disease is still relatively uncommon, seeing that only 54 patients were treated, while the total hospital admissions for the period was forty-one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one. The disease affects mainly house wives and mainly middle aged. The patients tend to present as semi-surgical emergencies with pain, 77.7%; vomiting, 44.2%; and palpable right upper quadrant mass (RUQ), 24.7%, and in some cases as peritonitis, 5.5%. Diagnosis was mainly by Ultrasound scan (U/S) and oral Cholangiograms. Interestingly, 7.4% had radio opaque gall stones on X-ray. 61.1% had straight forward cholecystectomy but 18.5% needed exploration of common bile duct (ECBD), and 7.4% were difficult enough to need ECBD and duodenotomy and sphincterotomy. Operative complications were few considering mode of presentation and mortality rate was 3.7%.