[3-trocar video laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a retrospective study].

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard for lithiasis of the gallbladder. Over the period from 1991 to 2000, the authors performed 1,321 videolaparoscopic cholecystectomies in the Surgical Division of San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Zagarolo (Rome). From January 1998 to December 2000, 390 of these patients were operated on consecutively utilising only three trocars. The authors report on this restricted subgroup of patients and stress that videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice. They claim that routine perioperative cholangiography is useless and that a fourth trocar is unnecessary.