[Preoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy before elective surgical therapy of symptomatic cholelithiasis]

We evaluated the data of 1143 patients who underwent preoperative gastroscopy or upper gastrointestinal series before elective surgical treatment of cholelithiasis between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1990. On these 824 women and 319 men we performed 1064 (93.1%) gastroscopies and only 78 (6.8%) upper gastrointestinal series. The incidence of pathological findings was 30.2% (345 patients), with 68.3% findings of inflammatory nature. In 28 patients (2.5%) cholecystectomy or bile duct exploration was combined with an additional gastrointestinal surgical procedure. In 227 cases (19.8%) biliary surgery was followed by pharmacological treatment of the gastrointestinal disease. Because of the high incidence of simultaneous disease of the upper gastrointestinum we believe that routine preoperative gastroscopy is indicated before elective surgical treatment of cholelithiasis.