Experience on the Surgical Management of Biliary Stones in Sokoto, North West Nigeria

Background: Cholelithiasis are relatively rare in Nigeria and Africa at large. However, recently the incidence has been reported to be on the rise. We present a ten-year review of our experience in managing gallstones to highlight the recent trends in our practice.Methods: This is a 10-year retrospective study on patients who were managed for gall bladder disease in the Usmanu Danfodiyo university teaching hospital Sokoto from August 2011 to July 2021. The biographic data, clinical features, radiologic, operative findings, histologic findings and outcome of treatment were analyzed with IBM SPSS 25.Results: There were 82 patients over the period of the study comprising of 18 (22%) males and 64 females (78%). Their ages range was 17 to 60 years with a mean of 37.59 years ±11.02. All patients had right upper quadrant pain as the main complaint with 24 patients (29.3%) having associated epigastric pain and 14 patients (17.1%) presented with jaundice. Preoperative ultrasound (USS) diagnosis was in keeping with intraoperative diagnosis in 97.6%. All patients had cholecystectomy out of which 62 patients (75.6%) had open cholecystectomy while 20 patients (24.4%) had laparoscopic cholecystectomy. There was no hospital mortality, the average hospital stay was 8.2 days following open cholecystectomy however this was shorter, 4.5 days for laparoscopic procedure.Conclusions: The prevalence of gallstones is still comparatively low when compared to the western world. Ultrasonography is very sensitive imaging modality. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and superior to open surgery in our environment.