Diabetes mellitus and the risk of cholecystectomy

Background: Whether diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased risk of cholecystectomy remains controversial. Aims: To explore the association between diabetes mellitus and the risk of cholecystectomy. Methods: Population-based case-control analysis using UK-based General Practice Research Database. Cases of cholecystectomy and up to four controls per case, matched on age, sex. BMI, general practice, calendar time, and years of history in the database were identified between 1994 and 2008. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the risk of cholecystectomy in diabetics compared to non-diabetics. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated, adjusted for smoking, alcohol consumption, statin use, and additional confounders. Results: Amongst 22,574 cases with cholecystectomy and 72,476 controls, 1068 (4.7%) and 3270 (4.5%) had diabetes, respectively, yielding an adjusted OR for developing gallstone disease followed by cholecystectomy of 0.88, 95% CI 78-1.00, p = 0.05) in association with diabetes mellitus. Neither glycaemic control, nor increasing diabetes duration or oral antidiabetic therapies were associated with an altered risk of cholecystectomy. Use of statins was protective in patients with (adj. OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.54-0.80, p < 0.0001) or without diabetes (adj. OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.62-0.78, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Diabetes mellitus was not associated with an altered risk of cholecystectomy. (C) 2011 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.