Factors Associated with Successful Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Acute Cholecystitis

OBJECTIVE: This article determined which preoperative data correlated with successful completion of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with acute cholecystitis. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Although laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the procedure of choice in chronic cholecystitis, its use in acute cholecystitis may be associated with higher costs and complication rates. It is not known which patients with acute cholecystitis are likely to require conversion to open cholecystectomy based on preoperative data or if a cooling-off period with medical therapy can diminish inflammation and increase the chance of successful laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: All laparoscopic cholecystectomies done by the authors between 10/90 and 2/92 were reviewed. Data on cases of acute cholecystitis were prospectively collected on standardized data forms. RESULTS: Twenty of 281 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were done for acute cholecystitis; 7/20 patients with acute cholecystitis required conversion to open cholecystectomy compared with 6/281 patients undergoing elective operation for chronic cholecystitis. In patients with acute cholecystitis the interval from admission to cholecystectomy in the successful cases was 0.6 days vs. 5 days in the cases requiring conversion to open cholecystectomy (p = .01). Cases requiring conversion to open cholecystectomy also had higher WBC (14.0 vs. 9.0, p < .05), alkaline phosphatase (206 vs. 81, p < .02, and APACHE II scores (10.6 vs. 5.1, p < .05). Ultrasonographic findings such as gallbladder distention, wall thickness, and pericholecystic fluid did not correlate with the success of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patients converted from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy required more operating room time (120 min vs. 87 min, p < .01) and more postop hospital days (6 vs. 2, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis should be done immediately after the diagnosis is established because delaying surgery allows inflammation to become more intense, thus increasing the technical difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.