The following is a summary of “Pediatric Cholelithiasis in the United States: National Hospitalization Trends, 2006 to 2019,” published in the December 2023 issue of Pediatrics by Agawu, et al.

Pediatric cholelithiasis has been linked to more hospitalizations in the past, but the researchers don’t know what the latest trends are. For a study, researchers looked at cholelithiasis in kids nationwide to see how hospitalization rates have changed recently. They used data from the Kids’ Inpatient Database releases from 2006 to 2019 to do a retrospective repeated cross-sectional study of hospitalizations for cholelithiasis in children (age < 18 years). The nation’s hospitalization rate (per 100,000 children) was the main important result. For kids with cholelithiasis, they looked at numbers broken down by age group and gender, as well as results and features of hospitalization.

Twenty-nine thousand twelve hospital records were found, which show 42,282 hospitalizations caused by gallstones. From 2006 to 2019, the hospitalization rate went down from 12.9 (95% CI: 12.6–13.2) to 9.1 (95% CI: 8.8–9.3). As expected from the research, most of the hospitalizations were of teenagers (71%) and people of the female sex (72%). Hospitalizations at standalone children’s hospitals rose from 18.2% to 35.1%, which is a big jump. Lastly, the percentage of hospitalizations having a medical problem that might have made the person more likely to get sick went up a lot.

Between 2006 and 2019, the number of US children hospitalized with cholelithiasis dropped by about 30%. The biggest drop was seen in female patients and teenagers, and more and more kids were being admitted to standalone children’s hospitals. Possible reasons include changes in how care is provided and the number of diseases affecting the community.

Source: journals.lww.com/jpgn/abstract/2023/12000/pediatric_cholelithiasis_in_the_united_states_.13.aspx