Is there any relationship between clinical parameters and histopathologic features of gallbladder specimens obtained from living liver donors?

Abstract

To investigate whether there is any relationship between the clinical parameters and the histopathological features of the gallbladder (GB) specimens obtained from living liver donors (LLDs). The demographic (age, sex, height, weight, and BMI), clinical (liver graft type, liver graft weight, and GB volume), microbiological (bile culture), and histopathological (width, length, wall thickness, and microscopic properties of the GB specimen) data of 169 LLDs, who underwent living donor hepatectomy between October 2015 and October 2017, were prospectively recorded and retrospectively analyzed. The LLDs were compared with respect to sex (male vs. female) and the histopathological features of the GB (normal structure vs. chronic cholecystitis vs. cholesterolosis/polyps/cholelithiasis). There were no significant differences between both sexes with respect to age, graft type, and some features of GB (volume, wall thickness, width, length, and bile culture). On one hand, there were significant differences between both sexes with regard to height (P < 0.001), weight (P < 0.001), BMI (P < 0.001), histopathological findings (P = 0.003), and graft size (P = 0.003). Comparison with regard to GB's histopathological features revealed no significant differences between the three groups with respect to age, weight, and some features of GB (volume, length, width, and bile culture). On the other hand, the three groups were significantly different in terms of sex (P = 0.003), height (P = 0.008), BMI (P = 0.002), and wall thickness (P = 0.044). Bile culture proliferation occurred in none of the patients except for one patient. This study is the first to assess GB's volume, dimensions, and bile culture in healthy individuals such as LLDs.