Risk in elective cholecystectomy
Orth, K.; Haas, S.; Oettinger, W.; Beger, H.G.
Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie 28(11): 616-620
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-2771 PMID: 2288140 Document Number: 361164
From 3/1982 to 12/1989 773 patient underwent an elective Cholezystectomy at the Surgical University Hospital of Ulm. In 87% of cases the indication was a symptomatic cholelithiasis, the mean age being 55.4 years for females and 56.6 years for males. Intraoperative complications were rare (2.8%) and of a technical nature. Postoperative morbidity was 15.2%. General disturbances occurred in 10.3% and were age-depended. Local postoperative problems (4.9%) did not show this age-dependent distribution. Residual stones were detected in 0.8% of cases; they were removed operatively or endoscopically or crushed by shock waves. 1.3% of patients had to be re-operated. In the age group under 70 years as well as over 70 years lethality was 0%. In 9 cases (1.16%) a gallbladder carcinoma was found incidentally during the operation. We think that elective cholecystectomy is a safe therapeutic procedure in gallbladder stone disease, which also considers the association of chronic cholelithiasis and gallbladder carcinoma.