Scintigraphic evaluation of postoperative complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is gaining popularity as an alternative to standard open cholecystectomy. At our institution, approximately 400 laparoscopic cholecystectomies have been performed since May 1989. The frequency of major postoperative complications has been approximately 1.5% (6 out of 400 cases). The most common complications have been biliary tree injury, bile leak, and retained stone. We present three patients who developed postoperative complications that were properly diagnosed on 99mTc-DISIDA cholescintigraphy. Our report indicates that 99mTc-DISIDA scintigraphy facilitates the rapid and precise diagnosis of bile leaks in patients with abdominal pain and/or hyperbilirubinemia following laparoscopic cholecystectomy.