First U.S. gallstone operationIn 1867, the first U.S. gallstone operation was performed by Dr. John Stough Bobbs, known as "the father of cholecystotomy" in Indianapolis, Indiana. While operating on his patient, Mary E. Wiggins (Mrs. Z. Burnsworth) for a suspected ovarian cyst, he found the gall bladder was inflamed and containing structures like "several solid ordinary rifle bullets." He opened the sac, removed multiple gallstones but left the gall bladder in place after closing the defect (cholecystostomy). The patient recovered and outlived Dr. Bobbs. The first account of gallstones had been given as early as 1420 by a Florentine pathologist Antonio Benevieni, in a woman who died with abdominal pain. Jean-Louis Petit performed gall bladder surgery in Europe in 1743.«* |
