A REVIEW OF FIFTEEN HUNDRED OPERATIONS UPON THE G ALL-BLADDER AND BILE PASSAGES WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MORTALITY

CharlesIi. Mayo and myself have performed 1500 operations upon the gall-bladder and bile passages, of which number 96 per cent, were operated upon in St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota, and under nearly identical con¬ ditions.One thousand of these cases were commented upon in a paper read before the Southern Surgical and Gyneco¬ logical Association in December, 1904, and will be found in the Transactions of the society for that year.The three most important considerations in the sur¬ gical treatment of any disease are, first, the mortality; second, the permanence of cure; third, the disability arising from the operation itself.The following investi¬ gation has been conducted with a view of elucidating the truth in regard to these essentials.Mortality.-Thefirst question to be considered con¬ cerns the operative mortality.In the 1500 operations there were 66 deaths, 4.43 per cent.In the first xooo cases, previously referred to, the death rate was 5 per cent.; in the last 500, since that time, 3.2 per cent.This includes acute perforations with septic peritonitis and malignant disease.These statistics give, as an operative death, every case dying in the hospital without regard to the length of time thereafter.It includes death from accidental causes such as pulmonary embolus, myocarditis and a number ■Road before the American Surgical Association, June i, 1906.