GALLBLADDER STONES SPECTRUM IN SAUDI POPULATION BY USING ULTRASONOGRAPHY

Objective:This study was designed with an aim to determine the incidence of gallbladder stonesandto evaluate the accuracy of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of calculus, occur in Saudi patients whom presents at the Radiology and Ultrasound Department.

Materials and method: Retrospective study in the period 22 August 2020 to 22 December 2020, a total of 108 patientsunderwentultrasound. When the gallbladder is investigated using ultrasound imaging (US) modality. Ultrasound instrument used was spatial digital U22 Philips Convex probe 3.5 Data analysis performed using the tables and computerized systems,ultrasound using different types of ultrasound units with 3.5 MHz and 5 MHz curve linear probes.Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel Software and the Standard Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 15 for windows.

Result: Out of 108 examined samples [mean age of 29 years male to female ratio of .9:1].Gallstones in this study were more common in the age range from 2 to 39, (58.3%).The most common causes of gallbladder stones are, 0ral contraceptives44(40.7%),Cholesterol28 (25.9%),Biliary dyskinesia 17 (15.7%),Diabetes 12 (11.1%),and Spinal cord injury7 (6.5%)one of the commonest complaints is upper abdominal pain,52(48.1%) and in majority of the cases the etiology is treatable,Nausea30 (27.8%) andVomiting 26(24.1%).Confirmation is done by CT scan 20 (18.5%) for the cases of small gall stones (<2mm) and impacted stones in cystic duct and operations, Cholecystectomy 14(13%) were done for stones large than (>2 cm), who have a nonfunctional or calcified (porcelain) gallbladder and patients for spinal cord injured.

Conclusion: Ultrasound (US) is the preferred method for evaluating gallstones with 96% accuracy. The number, size and calcification can be evaluated by virtue of US inversion and attenuation. If there are more than five stones, the accuracy decreases.