[Postcholecystectomy syndrome--still a current argument today?].

The "postcholecystectomy syndrome" was originally defined by Pribram as a pure functional disturbance after cholecystectomy. Today it has become a melting pot of various postoperative syndromes of mostly obscure origin. It's incidence is said to be 26-40%, but surgically treatable lesions of the biliary system amount only 1.5%. Functional consequences for biliary excretion are rare because the loss of the gallbladder reservoir is substituted in part by the biliary tree.