CHOLECYSTITIS AND CHOLELITHIASIS IN CHILDREN* BY S. SODERLUND and B. ZETTERSTROM From the Department ofPaediatric Surgery, Kronprinsessan Lovisas

Diseases of the gall-bladder such as cholecystitis or cholelithiasis are considered to be rare in childhood. In a hospital series of gall-stone cases, Linnemann (1938) found one child as against 3,600 adults. Since then improvements in the methods of investigation and in the diagnostic aids have made earlier diagnosis of gall-stone disease possible. Arnspiger, Martin and Krempin (1960) observed a ratio of 1:460 between children and adults suffering from gall-stones. At the Department of Paediatric Surgery of Kronprinsessan Lovisas Barnsjukhus in Stockholm, there has been a tendency towards an increase in the cases of cholecystitis and cholelithiasis in recent years. This may probably be due to the improved methods of diagnosis (Fig. 1). A survey of the literature on gall-stone diseases in adults (Alvarez, Meyer, Rusk, Taylor, and Easton, 1923), revealed that in many cases the