Surgery of the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas

Biliary, hepatic, and pancreatic surgery at the Mayo Clinic during 1973 was retrospectively examined. A total of 1,137 operations were performed in the 12-month period, with an overall hospital mortality of 2.6%. The operative mortality for 586 elective cholecystectomies for chronic cholecystitis with cholelithiasis was 0.3%--for acute cholecystitis 1.5% and for elective common duct exploration 2.9%. The present review is compared with prior reports in which similar methodology permitted comparisons. Improvement in operative mortality was noted in surgery for cholecystitis and pancreatic and hepatic lesions. The figures drawn from this and previous reports represent more than 10,000 operations on the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas performed at the Mayo Clinic.