[Early or delayed operation in patients with acute cholecystitis. Results of a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial (author's transl)].

In a prospective controlled randomized clinical trial, 60 patients with acute cholecystitis (diagnosed according to well defined criteria) were allocated randomly to early operation (n=28) or conservative treatment followed by delayed operation (n=30). The formed groups were well balanced. Total duration of hospitalization was 12 days for the early and 22 days for the delayed operation group. One case of death in the second group appeared to be due to pancreatic necrosis. From other complications recorded, only stitch sinus seemed to occur more frequently in the early operation group. For the first time the success of the two therapeutic procedures was evaluated by means of a systematic follow-up 6 weeks and 6 months after operation. The outcome was the same in both groups and "very good" and "good" for all patients. From these results early operation as the routine method for acute cholecystitis can be recommended unconditionally.