AN ACCURATE examination of the common duct should be a part of every operation on the extrahepatic biliary tract, except in the few cases in which the surgeon can be certain that the disease is limited to the gall bladder or in which the operative procedure must be minimal because of the poor condition of the patient. The history, physical findings and preoperative laboratory data may give valuable information concerning the patency of the ampulla or common duct, but frequently this information is neither complete nor infallible. The difficulty in detecting the presence of small stones in the common duct . . .
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Hight et al. (1952) studied this question.