[Preoperative intravenous cholangiography and residual common bile duct calculi. 600 cases reviewed 2 to 15 years after operation].

The authors have carried out as a routine since 1960 before operation a good intravenous cholangiography, i.e. showing up satisfactorily the bile ducts from the bifurcation of the common bile duct to the duodenum and have abandoned routine per-operative radiography. Satisfactory cholangiography was obtained in 96% of cases of simple cholecystitis and in 80% of complicated cases. 600 cases were questionned 2 to 15 years after operation (average 7 years). The 567 controllable cases were all questionned or seen again. The reliability of pre-operative cholangiography is excellent: no common bile duct declared normal on X-ray was found to contain a gall stone either during or after operation and the negative choledocotomies were only 0.17%. The operative simplification permitted us to reduce the operative mortality of simple cholecystectomy to 0.4%. The number of controlled residual calculi was 5.8%. With routine per-operative radiomanometry, the average level without control at the Lille Colloquium in 1968 was 7%. But with late control according to the estimation of the authors it should be about 10%.