title: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in gallstone patients with acute cholecystitis.
abstract: It remains controversial whether patients with gallstones with acute cholecystitis should be operated on early, or whether surgery should be delayed until the acute phase subsides. To help resolve this question, we retrospectively studied 109 patients with acute cholecystitis, 56 of whom underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy after acute cholecystitis had subsided (delayed group) and 53 of whom underwent early laparoscopic cholecystectomy--within 7 days after admission (early group). On admission, the inflammatory findings in the two groups were very similar; however, at operation, the inflammatory findings were alleviated in the delayed group, while they remained unchanged in the early group. The mean operative time for the two groups was very similar. As for intraoperative complications, there was no conversion to laparotomy in either group, and there were no major complications in either group. The total hospital stay was 37.7 +/- 14.4 days for the delayed group and 12.7 +/- 2.0 days for the early group, showing a highly significant difference (P < 0.001). Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy seems to be better than delayed treatment for patients with gallstones with acute cholecystitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Isoda
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ido
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kawamoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nagamine
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumagai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugano
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017081:Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic; D002764:Cholecystitis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome