[Sudden death after an operation for gall stones].

During 10 years 3000 patients were operated upon for chronic calculous cholecystitis. Twenty of these patients died during 30 days after operation, in 16 of them death resulted from incompetence of the vital organs. Endotoxicosis and polyorganic insufficiency after technically correct operations for chronic calculous cholecystitis are thought by the authors to be a variant of anaerobic infection with possible development of sepsis.