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Can cholangiography be safely abandoned in laparoscopic cholecystectomy?

The introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, improvements in ultrasound technology and the success of endoscopic sphincterotomy have raised new questions regarding the role of intraoperative cholangiography. Our aim was to analyse the ability of preoperative clinical and ultrasound assessments to detect common duct stones in 86 patients with symptomatic cholecystolithiasis who then underwent cholangiography after percutaneous cholecystolithotomy. Six patients gave a history suggestive of common duct stones (either jaundice, cholangitis or pancreatitis). Ultrasound showed a dilated common duct in four patients (normal < 6 mm), and one of these had a stone demonstrated in the duct. The latter patient and one other with a dilated common duct had stones on cholangiography (which were extracted at ERCP), no stones were demonstrated in the other two. Ultrasound correctly identified common duct stones in two and excluded common duct stones in four others with a history suggesting the presence of stones. For patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy we would advocate the use of preoperative ultrasound instead of intraoperative cholangiography, and that endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is performed in the small number of patients shown to have a dilated duct or common duct stone.