Fifty patients subjected to operation for gall bladder disease undertook cardiac stress tests before and two months after surgery. Fourteen showed evidence of preexisting coronary heart disease and this was unaltered by operation. Squeezing the gall bladder during surgery provoked arrhythmias in six out of ten patients with coronary heart disease and in two out of fourteen of those without demonstrable heart disease. Removal of a diseases gall bladder may decrease the arrhythmia potential, particularly in patients with associated coronary heart disease, but does not alter the angina threshold
