title: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy using fine-caliber instruments.
abstract: The advantages of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) are based on its low invasiveness due to the small surgical wounds. If LC could be performed using fine-caliber instruments, these advantages would be amplified. We developed 3-mm-caliber instruments and performed LC in 20 patients using one 5-mm and two 3-mm instrument ports. The results were retrospectively compared with those of standard LC. The operating time (107.2 +/- 50.0 min), complication rate (0%), number of doses of analgesia (0.80 +/- 0.83), and postoperative hospital stay (4.9 +/- 1.2 days) were not significantly different between our method and standard LC. At 6 months postoperatively, the scars were smaller with our method. Surgery using fine-caliber instruments was no more difficult than standard LC and achieved a superior cosmetic outcome.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 3600 Handa-cho, Hamamatsu, 431-31, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakuramachi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
mesh_terms: D017081:Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013525:Surgical Instruments