Disease of the gallbladder in patients with normal cholecystograms.

In contrast with what has widely been assumed, disease of the gallbladder sometimes remains undertected by even repeated cholecystography or cholegraphy. Chronic cholecystitis, gallstones, and acalculous cholesterolosis can escape detection by roentgenography of the gallbladder. Of 4,000 patients subjected to cholecystectomy between 1962 and 1973, the cholecystogram had been normal in only two. The range of indications for the operation has since been widened. Patients with typical symptons of gallbladder disease or recurrent pancreatitis of unknown origin have been operated on despite a normal cholecystogram. Within as short a period as eight months, an additional six patients with a normal cholecstogram have been operated on at our hospitals. Treatment consisted of cholecystectomy also in the four patients in whom no stones could be palpated in the gallbladder. Gross and microscopic examination of the gallbladder in these patients revealed cholesterolosis. When last seen, seven of the eight patients were still symptom-free an average fifteen months after the operation.