title: Mortality after open cholecystectomy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver: a population-based study in Denmark.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out if patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are at greater risk of dying within 30 days of cholecystectomy than patients with non-alcoholic cirrhosis or normal controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Population-based study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hospitals, Denmark.
  
  
  METHODS
  23103 patients with liver cirrhosis recorded in the Danish National Registry during the period 1977-94, of whom 110 had an open cholecystectomy; a random sample of 1204 patients without cirrhosis taken from all patients who had a cholecystectomy during the study period.
  
  
  METHODS
  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 the 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-alcoholic cirrhosis was 1.1 (95% CI 0.1 to 9.8) compared with controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis have an 11-fold increased risk of postoperative mortality after undergoing cholecystectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aalborg Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Thulstrup
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vilstrup
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002763:Cholecystectomy / Q000401:mortality*; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000150:complications*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries