How much pain relief do patients expect after cholecystectomy?

Background: Cholecystectomy is a common operation, increasingly performed, in the USA, for “functional gall bladder disorder” (FGBD). Outcomes of these surgeries are uncertain. In planning a study of FGBD, we needed to define the best outcome measures. Methods: We sought the opinions of patients (52 with FGBD and 100 with stones for comparison) coming to cholecystectomy. They were asked to respond in four ways about the minimum benefit they would count as “success.” Results: We found that most patients do not expect cholecystectomy to relieve their pain-related disability completely, regardless of the presence or absence of stones. Conclusions: Future studies of the success of surgery should use patient-centered outcome assessments, such as PGIC (patient’s global impression of change), in addition to objective measures of the impact of treatment on key symptoms, such as pain.