Surgical treatment of gallbladder diseases in patients over 70 years of age

: The authors give a retrospective analysis of the results of 162 biliary operations performed in a five-year period on patients over 70 years of age. The mortality rate of 87 elective operations was 3.45%, of 75 acute operations 6.17%. During the same period 321 ERCPs and 120 ESTs were carried out in patients over 70, out of whom 2 were operated on and lost (mortality: 1.67%) because of bleeding after EST. The total mortality rate was 7.41% (n = 12). The circumstances of negative and positive choledochotomies were analysed together with the relationship between the operating time and the course of the disease. Out of the negative choledochotomised patients (n = 10) 3, out of the positive ones (n = 40) 5 patients died. For each patient over 70, to shorten the operative time and to prevent perioperative complications, the authors recommend the consideration of ERCP prior to biliary operation, and in certain cases, instead of elective biliary surgery, for bile duct stone, EST and stone extraction is advisable, leaving the calculous gallbladder "in situ". Further investigations are necessary, in the authors opinion, to decide whether prior to emergency operation on patients over 70 urgent ERCP and, when bile duct stone is diagnosed, EST with stone extraction is justified, too.