Early surgical management of acute cholecystitis.

Between 1971 and 1977, 361 patients underwent early elective cholecystecomy for acute cholecystitis, and the complications and mortality were studied according to the length of time from admission to operation. A substantially greater proportion of the complications, and the only deaths, occurred in the patients operated upon more than 7 days after admission. The mortality rate was 0.6%. Nine additional high-risk patients underwent …