Abstract
Of 602 cholecystectomies performed during a 10-year period in our Division of Surgery, 86 (14.3%) were concomitant with other intra-abdominal operations (concomitant cholecystectomy), and were reviewed to determine the effects on morbidity. The number of patients undergoing concomitant cholecystectomy has increased yearly and the rate of concomitant cholecystectomy among overall cholecystectomies has been more than 20% for the past 3 years. More than 40% of the patients were in their 70s or 80s. The primary intra-abdominal disorders necessitating celiotomy were 33 gastric cancers, 9 colorectal cancers, 6 hepatocellular carcinomas, 3 esophageal varices, hereditary spherocytoses and others. Eighty-six cases of gallbladder disease (80 of gallbladder stones and 6 of gallbladder polyps) were detected and diagnosed pre-operatively by ultrasonographic imaging, and almost none of the patients had symptoms related to the gallbladder diseases at the time of surgery. Therefore, concomitant cholecystectomy was performed without any difficulty and post-operative morbidity attributable to cholecystectomy was negligible (1 bile leakage, 1 intra-abdominal abscess) compared with that in patients for whom cholecystectomy was the sole operation. We think that concomitant cholecystectomy is safe and does not increase morbidity.
