Cholecystectomy rate in autopsies from a Danish urban area. Frederiksberg 1914-1987.

A review of 7,647 autopsies performed in 1914-1987 on 3,629 women and 4,018 men aged 50-79 years in a Danish urban area demonstrated significant increase in the rate of cholecystectomy (p less than 10(-3] for men and women 'at risk', i.e. with stone-containing or removed gallbladder. The rates for men and women were approximately parallel, but with median 10% (range -4%-27%) higher in the women. In 1987 the corresponding rates at autopsies were 37% for women and 21% for men. As cholecystectomy rates are products of multiple variables which may be independent of the individual patient, such figures are a questionable measure of morbidity from gallstones, but so long as cholecystectomy rates rise, the need for treatment cannot have been met.