Patients Who Would Benefit Most from Gallbladder Removal Don't Have the Surgery

Removing the gallbladder is one of the most common operations performed in older adults. And yet scientists have now found that those who would benefit most from the surgery actually don't get it.

A combination of factors, such as age, sex, race, other associated illnesses and the severity of gallbladder symptoms, put a patient in danger for acute gallbladder attack. That's why researchers decided to create a predictive model for determining patients at most risk-and thus most likely to benefit from having their gallbladders removed. Then, the scientists put their predictive model to the test.

In their study, the researchers examined 11 years of billing records of more than 160,000 Texas Medicare patients, aged 66 and older, who had an initial episode of gallstone trouble. Then, the researchers used their model to determine which of these patients was most likely headed for a dangerous gallbladder attack over the course of two years.

What did they find? It turns out that removal of the gallbladder did not seem to depend on risk and in the healthiest patients, those in the most danger had their gallbladders removed the least often.

"Less than a quarter of patients in this study had their gallbladders removed," said Taylor Riall, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "We sought to determine whether the decision to have the gallbladder removed was actually based on their risk of having gallstone-related complications in the next two years."

The findings reveal that those with gallbladder issues should have them removed. In fact, only 23 percent in the high-risk group had their gallbladder removed.

The findings reveal that more vigilance should be taken when it comes to those at high-risk. More specifically, the new model the researchers created provides a starting point for individualized care.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

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