Mortality after open cholecystectomy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver: A population-based study in Denmark

Objective: To find out if patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are at greater risk of dying within 30 days of cholecystectomy than patients with non-alco holic cirrhosis or normal controls. Design: Population-based study. Setting: Hospitals, Denmark. Subjects: 23103 patients with liver cirrhosis recorded in the Danish Nation al Registry during the period 1977-94, of whom 110 had an open cholecystect omy; a random sample of 1204 patients without cirrhosis taken from all pati ents who had a cholecystectomy during the study period. Main outcome measure: Risk of mortality. Results: In the group with alcoholic cirrhosis the 30-day mortality was 7.7 % and for the controls it was 0.9%. In patients with alcoholic cirrhosis th e relative risk of death within 30 days was 11.5 (95% confidence interval 2 .8 to 47.4) compared with controls, whereas that for patients with non-alco holic cirrhosis was 1.1 (95% CI 0.1 to 9.8) compared with controls. Conclusion: Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis have an 11-fold increased ris k of postoperative mortality after undergoing cholecystectomy.