Management of cholelithiasis in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm

Gallstones were detected in 42 of 865 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (4.9%). Eighteen patients underwent concomitant aneurysm resection and cholecystectomy. Eleven patients had aneurysmectomy without cholecystectomy. Thirteen patients underwent cholecystectomy alone. There were no significant increases in operative mortality, duration of operation, or length of hospital stay when cholecystectomy was added to aneurysm resection. However, there was one instance of prosthetic infection which occurred in a patient who did not have his graft retroperitonealized prior to cholecystectomy, and who also underwent gastrostomy and drainage of the liver bed. There have been no graft complications in the remaining 17 consecutive patients who had their graft retroperitonealized prior to cholecystectomy. Nine of 11 patients who underwent aneurysmectomy without cholecystectomy experienced an episode of acute cholecystitis during a mean follow-up period of 2.9 years. Two of these episodes occurred in the immediate postoperative period and one patient died of biliary sepsis. On the basis of these findings, concomitant aneurysmectomy and cholecystectomy is advised in those patients with cholelithiasis undergoing aortic aneurysm resection providing no contraindications exist.