ABSTRACT
The gallstones from one hundred consecutive patients having stones in the gallbladder only were analyzed using both gross appearance and infrared spectrophotometry. There were 47 males and 53 females, and the sex ratio was 1:1.13. The most prevalent age was in the fifties in both sexes. Grossly, the number (and also the percentage) of cases of pure cholesterol, mixed cholesterol, calcium bilirubinate, black pigment, and combination stones were 4, 42, 23, 30, and 1, respectively. In the analysis by infrared spectrophotometry, the number of cases of cholesterol, calcium bilirubinate, and calcium carbonate stones were 44, 42, and 14, respectively. The accordance of gross appearance with infrared spectrophotometric classification was statistically significant (p=0.049). A comparison of cholesterol stones with pigment stones showed no difference based on either the sex or the age distribution, but there was a significant difference not only in terms of color, shape, and cut-surface (p=0.000) but also in terms of the number of stones (p=0.045). In conclusion, gallstone classification by gross appearance may be a rapid and relatively accurate method. Further study to standardize gallstone classification by various analytic methods is recommanded.