[Cirrhosis and biliary lithiasis in France: a postmortem study]

The prevalence of cholelithiasis was estimated in 434 cirrhotic patients and 1582 non cirrhotic patients necropsied at Hôpital Beaujon from 1976 to 1984. The overall prevalence of cholelithiasis was significantly higher in cirrhotic than in non cirrhotic patients, 26.3 p. 100 and 20.3 p. 100, respectively. The prevalence of cholelithiasis was higher in cirrhotic than in non cirrhotic patients, whether male or female and at any age, except in women over 60 years and in men over 80 years; in these groups, the prevalence of cholelithiasis in non cirrhotic patients was especially high and therefore did not significantly differ from that in cirrhotic patients. The cause of cirrhosis did not significantly influence the prevalence of cholelithiasis; however, although the number of studied patients was small, the prevalence of cholelithiasis seemed to be particularly high in primary biliary cirrhosis. The prevalence of cholecystectomy was lower in cirrhotic than in non cirrhotic patients, which suggests that cholelithiasis might be less often symptomatic and/or less often complicated in the former than in the latter.