Cholelithiasis: The Rolling Stones

INTRODUCTION Legendary singer Mick Jagger and lead guitarist Keith Richards are part of an iconic English rock band known as the Rolling Stones. Some of the bands top songs include: Gimme Shelter, Jumping Jack Flash, and Brown Sugar. In health care, another type of rolling stones exist called cholelithiasis, commonly known as gallstones. Cholelithiasis is the presence or formation of gallstones, which are commonly found in the gallbladder and the common bile duct (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 2012). Cholelithiasis is a common disease of the gallbladder and may consist of a single large stone or hundreds of tiny stones within the gallbladder (Hagen-Ansert, 2015). Cholelithiasis research is important because it has a considerable impact …show more content…
Cholelithiasis is the most common disorder of the biliary tract and is the one of the most common diseases affecting emergency-room patients with epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and loss of appetite (Jessri & Rashidkhani, 2015). A key factor in the susceptibility of cholelithiasis is genetics. Individuals are five times more likely to develop cholelithiasis when a family member has been diagnosed with the disorder (Stinton & Shaffer, 2012). The prevalence of cholelithiasis increases with age and is higher in woman than in men (Gustavsson et al., 2011). The female to male ratio is 4:1 in younger subjects and decreases to 2:1 in older age groups. Even though the ratio has a high association with fertile woman, cholelithiasis is not prevalent in adolescents. Less than 5% of cholecystectomies are performed on individuals under the age of 20 (Nakeeb et al., 2002). Incidents of cholelithiasis are also directly correlated with ethnicity. African American men and woman had the lowest prevalence at 5-14% respectively, whereas Mexican American men and women had the highest prevalence of 9-27%, respectively, with most other ethnicities falling somewhere in between (Cafasso & Smith,