[Treatment of biliary lithiasis with the advent of new technologies in Italy in the Lazio and Abruzzo regions over the past 15 years. Comparison between the patient series in a Roman university hospital and in a number of hospitals in the Abruzzo region].

Biliary lithiasis is a disease with a high incidence in the western world and a high social cost. To evaluate the impact of new technologies--mainly laparoscopic cholecystectomy and radiological and endoscopic techniques--in the treatment of biliary lithiasis, a statistical study was conducted on the surgical interventions performed over the past 15 years in Italy in the Lazio and Abruzzo regions. From 1985 to 1999, 150,000 cases of hepatobiliary lithiasis were hospitalized every year in Italy with a mean hospital stay of 7.8 days (13,000 in Lazio and 6,000 in Abruzzo). 100,000 cholecystectomies were performed every year in Italy in public hospitals, 30% of which by conventional laparotomy and 70% laparoscopically. Ten percent of these operations on average were performed in the Lazio region and 3% in the Abruzzo region. 10,615 cases of main bile duct stones were treated in 1999, 6,502 of which by ERCP and the others with open procedures and radiologically. The mortality was 0-0.1% for laparoscopic cholecystectomy as against 0-0.5% in open procedures.