[Incidence of biliary lithiasis in African urban areas (Abidjan): a little known pathology?].

The rarity of cholelithiasis in black Africa is a very classical concept that must be called in question again. With the exception of pigmentary lithiasis frequently found in patients with an homozygous haemoglobinopathy, genetic as well as environmental (particularly food related) factors explain in part the low frequency of cholelithiasis with cholesterol gallstones in Africa. Yet the true incidence of cholelithiasis is too often unappreciated. Before the use of ultrasonography, only symptomatic cholelithiasis were detected, usually by the surgeon (19 cases admitted during a 6 years period in the Internal Medicine Department at Treichville University Hospital, Abidjan). The practice of ultrasonography will ease the detection of asymptomatic cholelithiasis. Since ultrasonography has been set up at Treichville University Hospital, 30 cholelithiasis of which 21 were asymptomatic have been detected during an 8 months period, a high detection level of course for a so-called rare disease.