Rare gallbladder disease in patients with Covid history

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Five patients developed gallbladder gangrene after recovering from Covid-19, said Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Thursday stating that it was the first report of such cases in India. The patients were admitted with severe inflammation of gallbladder without gall stones. They successfully underwent laparoscopic removal of necrotic perforated gall bladders.

Dr Anil Arora, chairman of the Institute of Liver, Gastroenterology and Pancreaticobiliary Sciences at the hospital, said: “We successfully treated five such patients between June and August. After recovering from Covid-19, these patients developed severe inflammation of gallbladder without gallstones resulting in gangrene of gallbladder requiring urgent surgery.” He claimed it is the first time that cases of gallbladder gangrene have been reported in patients in India after recovery from Covid-19.

Out of these five patients aged between 37 and 75, four were men and one, a woman. All complained of fever, pain in the right upper quadrant of abdomen and vomiting. Two of them had diabetes and one suffered from heart disease. Three patients had received steroids for the management of Covid-19 symptoms.

The median duration between Covid-19 symptoms and diagnosis of ‘acalculous cholecystitis’ was two months. Diagnosis was confirmed through ultrasound and CT scan of abdomen. He added that ‘acalculous cholecystitis’ with gangrenous gallbladder is a serious condition associated with high morbidity (30 to 60 per cent) and much higher mortality than ‘calculous cholecystitis’.

It is usually seen in patients suffering diabetes, HIV infection, vascular disease, total parenteral nutrition, those on prolonged fasting, in intensive care units and those with underlying history of trauma, burns and sepsis.