May complete blood count parameters be predictive in estimation of gallbladder wall thickness?

Abstract

Background: We aimed to provide a contribution to the literature by analyzing the relationship of gallbladder wall thickness (GWT) as one of the important indicators of surgical difficulty and essential parameters of radiological evaluation with complete blood count (CBC) parameters. Methods: The present study included 410 patients who underwent cholecystectomy between the years 2012-2020. The demographic data such as age, gender, comorbidity, surgical procedure and smoking status were recorded. The correlations of CRP, WBC, RDW, and NLR values with gallbladder wall thickness and length of hospital stay were analyzed. Additionally, the correlation between gallbladder wall thickness and length of hospital stay was also analyzed. Results: RDW and NLR values were detected to be statistically significant correlated with GWT groups. A statistically significant difference was found between the groups with normal and remarkably increased GWT in terms of RDW and NLR values (respectively, P=0.039; P=0.048). Also, CRP values demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the groups with mildly increased GWT, remarkably increased GWT and perforation compared with the group with normal GWT (P<0.001). Conclusions: The relationship of gallbladder wall thickness as one of the important indicators of surgical difficulty and essential parameters of radiological evaluation with some of the routinely used clinical CBC parameters would be guiding for the clinicians in the determination of acute cholecystitis severity when effective radiological findings could not be obtained in emergency units and surgery clinics.