A major metropolitan "field amputation" team: a call to arms ... and legs.

Background: As early as 1979, suggestions were made to establish amputation teams and protocols in major metropolitan areas. It was recognized that preplanning on such calls would be valuable to carrying out rescues of that nature. Since then, questionnaires and collegial conversations reveal the existence of such teams remains the exception in our nation's cities.

Partial cholecystectomy in the setting of severe inflammation is an acceptable consideration with few long-term sequelae.

Open cholecystectomy is infrequently performed. For the general surgeon, open cholecystectomy is typically performed when a great degree of inflammation precludes safe laparoscopic removal. The degree of inflammation can also lead to an unacceptable risk of common bile duct injury during the dissection of the triangle of Calot.