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Joseph F. Simeone, MD; Joseph T. Ferrucci, Jr, MD

JAMA. 1981;246(4):380-383.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

GALLBLADDER disease accounts for more than 500,000 operations annually in the United States and is the most common indication for abdominal surgery and the fourth most common cause of surgical hospitalization in adults.¹

For almost 60 years, since the introduction by Graham and Cole₂ of the oral cholecystogram (OCG) in 1924, it has remained the unchallenged method for investigation of gallbladder disease. Nevertheless, despite its accuracy, safety, and ease of performance, the future of the oral cholecystogram is presently in doubt, principally as a result of the recent advent of gray-scale ultrasound. Ultrasonic techniques, including realtime scanning, have demonstrated remarkable sensitivity and specificity for nearly the entire spectrum of gallbladder disease. In some centers, ultrasonography is now employed as the primary screening technique for detection of gallbladder pathology. Because cholecystosonography may lead to revisions in clinical approaches to diagnosis of gallbladder disease, this review of principles, results, and . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, Boston.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114 (Dr Ferrucci).

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