Mortality after open cholecystectomy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver: a population-based study in Denmark

To find out if patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are at greater risk of dying within 30 days of cholecystectomy than patients with non-alcoholic cirrhosis or normal controls.

Population-based study.

Hospitals, Denmark.

23103 patients with liver cirrhosis recorded in the Danish National Registry during the period 1977-94, of whom 110 had an open cholecystectomy; a random sample of 1204 patients without cirrhosis taken from all patients who had a cholecystectomy during the study period.

Risk of mortality.

In the group with alcoholic cirrhosis the 30-day mortality was 7.7% and for the controls it was 0.9%. In patients with alcoholic cirrhosis the relative risk of death within 30 days was 11.5 (95% confidence interval 2.8 to 47.4) compared with controls, whereas that for patients with non-alcoholic cirrhosis was 1.1 (95% CI 0.1 to 9.8) compared with controls.

Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis have an 11-fold increased risk of postoperative mortality after undergoing cholecystectomy.