Postmortem study of the frequency of gallstones in patients with cirrhosis of the liver.

The frequency of gallstones in cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients at necropsy has been determined from a retrospective survey of postmortem records over 15 years. The frequency of gallstones was found to be 29.4% in the cirrhotic group and 12.8% in the non-cirrhotic population. Whereas gallstones were twice as frequent in females than males in the general population the sex difference disappeared in cirrhotic patients. Gallstones increased in frequency with age in the general population but this phenomenon was not seen in the cirrhotic group. No one type of cirrhosis was more liable to be associated with gallstones at necropsy. In contrast to the general population bilirubin stones were more frequent in cirrhotics.