Dengue fever related acalculous cholecystitis in a North Indian tertiary care hospital.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To document the clinical outcome and prognosis of acalculous cholecystitis in dengue fever.

METHODS: Prospective analysis of 27 cases of dengue fever presenting to the medical emergency of a tertiary care referral hospital in Chandigarh, India.

RESULTS: All patients with dengue fever presenting with abdominal pain in the year 2003 were studied by ultrasound examination for the presence of acalculous cholecystitis. Five cases presented in October and 22 cases in November. Mean age was 29.8 +/- 9.7 years and there were 21 males and six females. Mean duration of fever was 5.07 +/- 1.8 days and mean duration of body ache was 4.06 +/- 2.6 days. The mean platelet counts for all cases at presentation were 29.41 +/- 18.41 x 10(9)/L and at discharge 95.28 +/- 53.01 x 10(9)/L. The mean duration of in-hospital stay was 3.4 +/- 1.7 days. Fourteen patients presented with pain in the abdomen and were confirmed to have acalculous cholecystitis on ultrasound examination of the abdomen (mean gallbladder wall thickness was 5.2 +/- 1.03 mm). Amongst all variables assessed, the only significant difference seen was that the duration of in-hospital stay was 1.68 days more in the group with acalculous cholecystitis.

CONCLUSION: Acalculous cholecystitis should be strongly suspected in patients with dengue fever presenting with abdominal pain. Our study has shown that acalculous cholecystitis occurred in 14 out of 27 patients with dengue fever.