Ultrasound Evaluation of Gallbladder Mobility in Children with Chronic Functional Constipation

Constipation as a common disease in children can cause significant complications for this age group, so that one third of children have chronic symptoms which may continue into adulthood. The causes of chronic functional constipation are largely unknown; and it may be a multifactorial disorder. Gallbladder dysfunction in chronic idiopathic constipation may be an underlying cause of idiopathic constipation. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the gallbladder mobility ultrasound in children with chronic functional constipation in Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahvaz. Children between the ages of 3 to 13 years in Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahvaz, who suffered from functional constipation, were visited by a pediatric digestive and liver subspecialty physician after referring to the pediatric gastroenterology clinic of the hospital and were referred to us for conducting gallbladder ultrasound. In this study, 50 patients with chronic functional constipation and 50 healthy individuals (control group) were studied. The mean age of the participants in this study was 6.96 with a standard deviation of 2.44 years. In this study, 40 patients (40%) were boys and 60 patients (60%) were girls. The mean volume of gallbladder in fasting mode (preprandial) and after meal (postprandial) in individuals of the case group were 5.66 and 4.17 cm3 with standard deviations of 0.80 and 0.64, respectively, and in the control group were 6.08 and 3.06 cm3 with standard deviations of 0.97 and 0.75, respectively. The thickness of the gallbladder wall in the fasting mode (preprandial) and after meal (postprandial) in the case group was 1.50 and 1.67 mm with standard deviations of 0.24 and 0.29 mm, respectively, and in the control group, it is equal to 1.39 and 1.69 with standard deviations of 0.22 and 0.28, respectively.A significant relationship was observed between case and control groups (P <0.05) in terms of gallbladder volume after meals, but no significant relationship was found between gallbladder volume and the gallbladder wall thickness in the fasting mode and after meal in neither of the case and control groups (P> 0.05). Due to the slow mobility of the gallbladder in patients with chronic functional constipation, it can be concluded that gallbladder dysfunction can be a cause of chronic functional constipation.