The postcholecystectomy syndrome: a review

The objective is to study the Postcholecystectomy Syndrome (PCS); its causes, different methods of diagnosis and different treatment options and their results in order to deduce from the above data the best method of prevention of its occurrence and the best method of treatment once it has occurred. Data sources include a medline search of articles covering this topic in the English literature and the abstracts of non-English articles from 1966-1994. The total number of articles of interest to the study being approximately 120. There are many causes of PCS, some related to improper preoperative diagnosis and some related to avoidable and unavoidable consequences of cholecystectomy. The different diagnostic modalities are dependent on the cause as are the different treatment options. The best treatment of this condition remains prevention whenever possible. Proper diagnosis of those patients who truly require cholecystectomy and care in performing the cholecystectomy will minimize the incidence of this syndrome.