do they disappear after cholecystectomy?
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of cholecystectomy in patients with gallstones on preoperative abdominal symptoms. METHODS: A systematic search was made of the Medline database in combination with reference checking. Articles were excluded if patients aged <18 years, symptom relief rates could not be calculated, if follow-up after cholecystectomy was less than 1 month, or when the included patients were at extraordinary risk for a complicated outcome. Potential differences in relief rates due to patient selection, retrospective versus prospective design, duration of follow-up, or intervention were analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: The pooled relief rate for "biliary pain" was high 92% (95% confidence interval 86 to 96%). Symptom relief rates were consistently higher in studies that included acute cholecystectomies. For upper abdominal pain--without restrictions for intensity or duration--pooled relief rates ranged from 72% (66 to 77%) after elective cholecystectomy, to 86%
