Autopsy Incidence of Gallstones in Japan

Abstract

Statistical data on the autopsy incidence of gallstones during 1955-61, the period which was marked by considerable improvements in life circum-stances of Japan after World War II, were collected from 48 pathologic institutes of Japan. Of a total of 35, 028 cases of this series, 1, 536 cases were reported to have had gallstones at autopsy, the over-all incidence being 4.4 per cent. Since comparable data ranged in the pre-war period from 2.8 per cent to 3.7 per cent, the increase of the incidence revealed by this study is quite smaller than was expected from remarkable improvements, in recent years, of the nutritive conditions of the Japanese people. Moreover, the autopsy incidence of gall-stones appearing in Western literatures is twice or more as high as that of the present study. In this connection, it has been demonstrated that the average fat and protein intakes of the Japanese people in these days are definitely larger than in the pre-war period but are still much smaller when compared with those of the Western people.