Acute cholecystitis is the most common acute disease in hepatobiliary surgery and one of the most common diseases in digestive tract surgery in general (1). With aging, the incidence increases from 4% in the third decade to 27% in the seventh decade of life (2). Biliary calculosis is undoubtedly a disease of modern man. At least 20% of the human population is thought to have cholelithiasis but in the most developed countries of the world this percentage is higher. The fact is that this disease is much more common in areas where the diet is irrational (fat-rich and high- calorie diet).

The incidence of the disease increases with age.

Women of childbearing age are more likely to suffer than men (1.5-3.0:1). There is a 4F formula that is attractive but does not explain the mechanism and occurrence of biliary calculosis (female, forty, fat and fertile). It should also be known that almost 50% of biliary lithiasis is asymptomatic and is detected accidentally during some clinical trials. Cholecystectomy is method of choice for treatment of gallbladder calculosis. Open cholecystectomy has been the “gold standard” for symptomatic cholelithiasis for a century. However, in the last two decades the introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy has revolutionized the treatment of gallbladder calculosis (4).

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now considered to be the procedure of choice that achieves a shorter recovery period and reduced treatment costs. In earlier years acute cholecystitis was regarded as a relative contraindication for laparoscopic cholecystectomy because of inflammatory changes that impair tissue quality and make it difficult to accurately visualize anatomical structures.

As technological advances have been accompanied by improvements in surgical performance laparoscopy has become the “gold standard” in the treatment of chronic cholecystitis with cholelithiasis, and over time the indications widen and acute gallbladder inflammation is also resolved by laparoscopy.