The present article analyzes the indications for sphincterotomy in the Surgical Department of the University of Murcia, postoperative morbidity and mortality and the long term clinical situation of the patient after a follow-up period averaging 5.8 years. During a ten year period, a total of 2,610 patients underwent operation for biliary lithiasis, with exploratory choledochotomy indicated in 591 (22.6 percent). Surgical exploration of the bile duct finished with sphincterotomy in 135 (22.9 percent); 52 percent of these patients were less than 60 years old. The most frequent preoperative diagnosis was choledocholithiasis (33.3 percent) and cholelithiasis with crises of acute pancreatitis (30.3 percent). If we divide the ten years of the study into two five year periods, we noted a statistically significant decrease (p < 0.001) in the percentage of sphincterotomies compared with the number of choledochotomies performed during the second period. The rate of intra-abdominal complications was 5.1 percent; four intra-abdominal abscesses, one hemorrhaging at the level of the sphincterotomy and two instances of postoperative pancreatitis. Mortality in the series was 1.4 percent (two patients)--one with postoperative pancreatitis that developed torpidly and one with pulmonary embolism. Six years after the operation, 72.9 percent of the patients are still asymptomatic and the remaining patients have some type of symptoms--15.8 percent presented with dyspeptic syndrome; 2.0 percent had crises of colicky pain, and 5.9 percent required hospital admission for cholangitis. All of the patients with symptoms underwent endoscopy and ultrasonographic exploration of the bile duct. There were no pathologic findings in the biliary tree of patients who had dyspeptic syndrome or colicky pain, and all of the patients with cholangitis had a papillary stenosis and required endoscopic sphincterotomy or reoperation.