[Laparoscopic cholecystectomy--the method of choice in the elderly]

The aim of the study was the comparison and assessment of the results of gallbladder excision performed with the classical and laparoscopic methods in persons after age of 70. A total of 242 patients with mean age of 76.1 years operated on in the years 1999-2002, were analysed. 150 of them were operated with the laparoscopic and 92 with the classical methods. The frequency of postoperative--surgical and general--complications and the presence of concomitant diseases associated with old age were compared. Laparoscopic procedures are distinguished for an almost six fold decrease in the percentage of complications (6 vs. 35%) loaded comparably with concomitant diseases. Patients operated with laparoscopic methods had suffered from cardiac infarctions twice as often in their past history (17 vs. 8%). The method of laparoscopic gallbladder excision proved to be beneficial also in persons of advanced age.