[The importance of preoperative study of cholelithiasis during the laparoscopic era]

Preoperative x-ray examination of the biliary tree has in the last decade been entrusted to ultrasonography. The diagnostic procedure was completed with an accurate evaluation of the main biliary tract by means of intra-operative cholangiography. However, recently-developed methods such as operative endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery require essential pre-operative information about the state of the biliary tract which ultrasonography is not able to provide. In our view, the most useful examination for this purpose is i.v. cholangiography; the results of this study, relating to 303 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, of whom 39 affected by cholecysto-choledochal lithiasis, would seem to confirm these view.