Abstract

Background: Gallstones are formed in the biliary tract, which includes the right and left hepatic ducts, common hepatic duct, cystic duct, gallbladder, common bile duct, and pancreatic duct causing an obstruction to the bile juice passage, leading to pain in the upper right abdomen, jaundice, nausea, vomiting, and digestive problems. Thereby, the study aimed to determine the incidence of gallstones formation in adult post bariatric surgery patients in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh. A total of 113 participants were randomly enrolled; 45.9% of the patients were male while 54.1% were female. The study was carried out from 2017 to 2018 by observing the patient’s files.
Results: The most commonly performed bariatric surgery in this study was the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, which was performed in 95 (83.8%) patients. The majority of the patients (93.7%) received ursodeoxycholic Acid (UDCA) prophylaxis after the surgery to prevent the formation of gallstones. The postoperative incidence of gallstones formation was 5.4%, corresponding to six patients, out of which two were female (33.3%) and
four were male (66.7%). The average duration of the postoperative development of symptomatic cholelithiasis was at least 1.17 years. Finally, no significant association was found between the development of gallstones and age, gender, UDCA prophylaxis, comorbid diabetes, and type of surgery.
Conclusion: In this study, up to 5.4% of the patients followed-up for developed gallstones as evident by the radiological findings and symptoms; the majority of them underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (83.8%).

Key words: Gallstones, bariatric surgery, incidence, Saudi Arabia