Clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes of acute cholangitis in a Paraguayan university hospital, 2022-2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53732/rccsalud/e81109Keywords:
cholangitis, choledocholithiasis, biliary drainage, cholangiopancreatography, sepsisAbstract
Introduction. Acute cholangitis is an infection of the biliary tree associated with bile-flow obstruction and may progress to sepsis and organ dysfunction. Objective. To describe the clinical characteristics, etiology, diagnostic assessment, treatment, and in-hospital outcomes of patients with acute cholangitis treated at a Paraguayan university hospital. Materials and methods. Observational, descriptive, retrospective study of adult patients hospitalized between January 2022 and October 2025. Descriptive statistics were used. Results. Twenty-eight patients were included; mean age was 57.8 ± 11.3 years, and 17 (60.7%) were men. Lithiasic disease was the most frequent etiology (15; 53.6%). Cholangitis was mild in 11 (39.3%), moderate in 10 (35.7%), and severe in 7 (25.0%). ERCP was performed in 13 patients (46.4%), with therapeutic success in 9 (69.2%); 15 (53.6%) required surgery. One in-hospital death occurred (3.6%). Conclusion. Lithiasic disease predominated, and more than half of the patients required surgery. These findings support standardized severity-based management and institutional evaluation of timely access to endoscopic drainage.
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