Publication:

Gallbladder motility in children with chronic functional abdominal pain

Background Chronic abdominal pain is a common gastrointestinal symptom in children that significantly lowers their quality of life. In adults, Gall bladder (GB) hypomotility / dyskinesia is associated with many functional abdominal disorders but there is scarcity of evidence on its role in childhood gastro-intestinal disorders. Aim of the study is to evaluate the GB motility in children with chronic functional abdominal pain (FAP).

Methods Children aged 5-15 years with chronic abdominal pain fulfilling ROME-III criteria and healthy controls were included and all study participants were subjected to ultrasonographic evaluation of the gall bladder volume in fasting state and post - Fatty test meal (FTM) and its ejection fraction was calculated.

Results Sixtysix children including 31 with chronic FAP underwent sonographic evaluation for GB motility. The mean ejection fraction (EF) of cases and controls were 51.72±17.76% and 57.3±23.26% (p value - 0.158). The mean EF of cases with upper abdominal pain and lower/peri-umbilical abdominal pain were 41.7±17.1% and 57.2±15.9% respectively (p value < 0.0001). Increasing BMI had no significant association with GB motility among the participants.

Conclusions There is lack of significant association between children with chronic FAP and GB hypomotility. Children with upper abdominal pain have lesser GB EF, suggesting a possible abnormal GB motility.