Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), have increased substantially over the past few decades affecting nearly 6.8 million individuals worldwide[1]. The etiology of IBD remains obscure, possibly involving a complex interaction between the genetic, environmental or microbial factors and the immune responses. Gallstone disease (GSD) is one of the most common and costly gastroenterological disorders, with a prevalence of 10-20% in Europe and America[2]. Considering that gallstones and IBD also share specific risk factors, such as obesity[2, 3], inappropriate diet[2, 4] and metabolic hormone levels[5, 6], and have the pathophysiologic linkage, such as changes in gut microbiota composition[5] and bile acid profile[7], we propose that the occurrence of gallstones may predict the subsequence risk of IBD. However, investigations concerning the association is lacking.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between gallstone disease and the risk of inflammatory bowel disease.