Acute acalculous cholecystitis complicating aortic aneurysm repair.

In a series of 374 consecutive abdominal aortic aneurysmal repairs, the incidence of acute acalculous cholecystitis was 1.1 per cent. This complication occurred in only one of 352 patients (0.3 per cent) after elective aneurysmorraphy, as compared with three of 22 (13.6 per cent) after emergency repair of a ruptured aneurysm. This difference proved highly significant (p = 0.0001). All of the patients who had postoperative acute cholecystitis after aortic aneurysmal repair had acalculous disease. A mortality rate of 50 per cent was noted for this complication. Technetium cholescintigraphy proved the most valuable diagnostic study when acute cholecystitis was suspected.