Litholytic agents as an alternative treatment modality in patients with biliary dyspepsia

Biliary dyspepsia presents as biliary colic in the absence of explanatory structural abnormalities. Causes include gallbladder dyskinesia, sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, biliary tract sensitivity, microscopic sludges, and duodenal hypersensitivity. However, no consensus treatment guideline exists for biliary dyspepsia. We investigated the effects of medical treatments on biliary dyspepsia. We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of 414 patients who had biliary pain and underwent cholescintigraphy from 2008 to 2018. We enrolled patients who received litholytic agents and underwent follow-up scans after medical treatment. We divided the patients into the GD group (biliary dyspepsia with reduced gallbladder ejection fraction [GBEF]) and the NGD group (biliary dyspepsia with normal GBEF). We compared pre- and post-treatment GBEF and symptoms. Among 57 patients enrolled, 40 (70.2%) patients had significant GBEF improvement post-treatment, ranging from 34.4 ± 22.6% to 53.8 ± 26.8% (P