Patients undergoing surgical treatment for calculous disease were considered to have had a partial cholecystectomy performed when a part of the gall bladder wall was retained for technical reasons. Forty patients underwent partial cholecystectomy: for chronic cholecystitis (20), acute cholecystitis (4), Mirizzi's syndrome (14), portal hypertension or partially accessible gall bladder (one patient each). Four patients (10%) developed infective complications and two patients had retained common bile duct stones. In a mean follow up period of 13 months (range 1-36 mths), only 3 patients have ongoing mild dyspeptic symptoms while the rest have remained asymptomatic. Partial cholecystectomy has been found to be a safe and effective procedure in difficult cholecystectomy situations, since it combines the merits of cholecystectomy and cholecystostomy.