Gallbladder Disease in Southwestern American Indians

Abstract

Southwestern American Indians suffer from gallbladder disease at a rate more than double that of the American non-Indian population. This report describes a two-year experience with 101 patients undergoing cholecystectomy at the Fort Defiance Indian hospital on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Northern Arizona. Our results show a high female-to-male sex ratio (4.6:1), a low average age in women undergoing cholecystectomy (42.4 years), a high incidence of associated common duct stones (16%), and a high rate of gallbladder malignancy (6 percent).