Abstract
One case is reported and 14 others are culled from the literature. Each patient experienced an intraperitoneal abscess with a gallstone nidus following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Each required open surgical drainage weeks or months after the initial laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
The natural biology of spilled intraperitoneal gallstones is not known. Two short-term animal studies suggest initial partial lysis and fibrotic encapsulation.
At least 15% of completed laparoscopic cholecystectomies leave intraperitoneal gallstones. Almost all prove to be clinically innocuous but the rare instances of later intraabdominal abscess formation deserve recognition and reporting.
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Shocket, E. Abdominal abscess from gallstones spilled at laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Surg Endosc 9, 344–347 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00187783
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00187783