Infusion cholecystography--an aid in the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis

Early operation of patients with acute cholecystitis is nowadays accepted as the treatment of choice. One prerequisite for this policy is, however, the availability of diagnostic procedures that can rapidly secure or, even more important, exclude the diagnosis to avoid unnecessary operations. Infusion cholecystography was here shown to be an accurate method giving decisive information in patients with clinically suspected acute cholecystitis. The gallbladder was not visualized in 26 out of 45 patients with inconclusive clinical signs of acute cholecystitis. The diagnosis of acute cholecystitis was confirmed at operation or by a typical clinical course in these 26 patients. In the 19 patients with visualized gallbladder diagnosis other than acute cholecystitis were established by acute operation or by other means.