PREVALENCE AND PREDICTORS OF CHANGES IN BOWEL HABITS AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY

BACKGROUND: The incidence of cholecystolithiasis is approximately 15% of the population. It is believed that between 30-40% of cholecystectomy patients have symptoms after surgery, being changes in bowel habits the most common among them. AIM: 1) Defining the prevalence, and 2) identifying predictors of changes in bowel habits after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study with an initial sample of 150 patients diagnosed with cholecystolithiasis operated between July and September 2014. Patients were submitted to a questionnaire about the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and changes in stools consistency before and after the surgical procedure. They were divided into two groups (with or without changes in bowel habits) being combined with the following variables: high blood pressure, body mass index, hypothyroidism, adherence to postoperative dietary orientations, previous abdominal and bariatric surgery. RESULTS: The prevalence of changes in bowel habits in the study population was 35.1%. The association between it and gastrointestinal symptoms was demonstrated to be statistically significant (‰2=7.981; p=0.005), and people who did not have gastrointestinal symptoms had 2.34 times the odds of not presenting changes in bowel habits. None of the other investigated factors had shown to be a predictor of risk for post-cholecystectomy changes in bowel habits. CONCLUSION: 1) There was a high prevalence of changes in bowel habits, and 2) there was association between changes in bowel habits and the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms.