title: Outcome of cirrhotic patients undergoing cholecystectomy: applying Bayesian analysis in gastroenterology.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cholelithiasis is a common finding in patients with cirrhosis. Previous studies showed that open cholecystectomy (OC) carries a high risk of postoperative complications and deaths in cirrhotic patients. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has significantly decreased hospital stay and postoperative morbidity in non-cirrhotic patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of cirrhotic patients after LC and OC in a tertiary center.
  
  
  METHODS
  The outcomes of 33 cirrhotic patients matched by age and sex to 66 non-cirrhotic controls who underwent cholecystectomy were assessed using Bayesian analysis. Both non-informative and informative priors were used to calculate posterior distributions for parameters under investigation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-four (72%) cirrhotic patients had LC and 9 (27%) OC. A similar percentage of patients in the control group underwent LC (78%) and OC (21%). Emergent cholecystectomy was not different between cirrhotic and controls (95% credible interval [CrI]-0.35, 0.02). Mean blood loss, duration of surgery and conversion rate was not different between cirrhotic and controls, but cirrhotic patients had a longer length of hospital stay than controls (CrI 0.88, 4.71). Cirrhotic patients undergoing LC had lower volume of blood loss (CrI -363.85 mL, -49.28 mL), shorter duration of surgery (CrI -79.82 min, -19.74 min), lower amount of intravenous fluid during surgery (CrI -1532.9 mL, -495.4 mL) and shorter hospital stay (CrI -11.14 days, -1.20 days) than cirrhotic patients undergoing OC. Child-Pugh class B class and admission diagnosis of biliary pancreatitis were associated with a longer hospital stay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective alternative to OC in Child-Pugh class A and B cirrhotic patients undergoing elective or emergent cholecystectomy. Although outcomes of cirrhotic patients undergoing LC and OC in a tertiary center are not different, LC is associated with less intraoperative bleeding, shorter duration of surgery and fewer days of in-hospital care.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. eda_silveira@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Eduardo B V
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: da Silveira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002763:Cholecystectomy; D017081:Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005762:Gastroenterology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome