[Gallbladder puncture and drainage as therapy of acute cholecystitis]

An ultrasound-guided, percutaneous puncture (n = 30) and cholecystostomy (n = 10) was performed on 40 high-risk patients aged between 38 and 99 (mean age 78 years old) suffering from acute lithogenic cholecystitis or acalculous stress cholecystitis on account of general inoperability. Two catheter dislocations and in 3 cases a slight bile leakage were observed as complications.

The puncture and drainage led to a dramatic alleviation of pain for all patients, the involution of a paralytic subileus and improvement of the general condition. Eighteen patients underwent a laparoscopic or open interval cholecystectomy in a stabilised condition. There was no recurrence of inflammation in 22 patients over a follow-up period of up to 5 years, so that one can assume a cicatrised healing of the acute choleycstitis.

Ultrasound-guided, percutaneous puncture and cholecystostomy are effective, low-risk, and only slightly invasive procedures which can be employed for risk patients with acute cholecystitis as a life-saving, and in some cases definitive treatment. On account of pathogenic considerations, they should be included in the diagnostic and therapeutic concept at an early stage, particularly for acute, acalculous stress cholecystitis.