[Treatment strategy of gallstone patients under special conditions gallstone in the elderly]

We have treated 894 gallstone patients for these five years. The average age was 55.47 and 163 cases (18.2%) were more than 70 year-old. One of the important characteristics of the aged gallstone patients that they often had bile duct stones causing acute obstructive cholangitis. The other was that they accompanied another organ disorders. Early biliary drainage was the best way to avoid multiple organ failure under such conditions. Principally, surgical treatment if it's possible, was most reliable for bile duct stones. Thirty-five patients of bile duct stones were treated with our new surgical procedure. That was primary closure technique of the common bile duct following lithotomy under pre- or intra-operative insertion of naso-biliary drainage catheter. Especially in the elderly, this technique was useful to reduce post operative hospital stay by 19 days compared with the ordinary T-tube drainage.