Associations of cholecystectomy with the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease: a Mendelian randomization study

Background Cholecystectomy is the standard surgery for patients with gallbladder disease, but the impact of cholecystectomy on gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) is not clear. Methods We obtained genetic variants associated with cholecystectomy at a genome-wide significant level ( P value < 5 × 10 −8 ) as instrumental variables (IVs) and performed Mendelian randomization (MR) to explore the relationship with GERD. Results The Inverse Variance Weighted analysis (IVW) showed that the risk of GERD in patients after cholecystectomy increased (OR = 2.19; 95% CI: 1.18 – 4.09). At the same time, the analysis results of weighted median (OR = 2.30; 95% CI: 1.51 – 3.48) and weighted mode (OR = 2.21; 95% CI: 1.42 – 3.45) were also consistent with the direction of the IVW analysis and were statistically significant ( P < 0.05). Conclusions This study shows that patients who have undergone cholecystectomy are a susceptible population of GERD.