Six hundred patients with gallstones.

A total of 610 patients with gallstones were treated over an 8-year period in a single surgical unit. Of these patients, 384 had cholecystectomy, 86 surgical duct exploration and 140 endoscopic sphincterotomy. Four patients died after cholecystectomy (1%), but there were no deaths after the treatment of duct stones. The proportion of patients with duct stones having endoscopic sphincterotomy with the gallbladder in situ rose considerably during the 8-year period, from about 20% to 75%. Gallstones tend to present in the elderly as duct stones, and in the young as gallbladder stones. The majority of patients over 75 years of age had endoscopic sphincterotomy, whereas the younger patients were usually treated surgically.