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People with acute biliary pancreatitis who don't have their gallbladders out often do just fine, despite standard guidelines that recommend the surgery, a study finds.








More than two-thirds of study patients who declined the surgery didn't return to the hospital for pancreatitis over a four-year follow-up period, researchers found.
"These findings tell us that there may be a way to avoid gallbladder removal surgery," says Susan Hutfless, assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the principal investigator.
The study, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, shows that "as medicine evolves, it is important to reflect on opportunities to refine care [standards] further," Hutfless says....