Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Iraqi patients

ABSTRACT

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was introduced into Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Saddams medical city in April 1994. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of the procedure in Iraq to obtain some insight into its safety and efficacy in general surgical practice, 65 cases were performed after the diagnosis of patients with gall stones disease by history, clinical examinations and investigations, 53 were females and 12 were males with an average age 44.3 years ranging from 16-70 years. 2 cases [3%] were converted to open cholecystectomy the average operation time was 68 minutes with a range between 30-120 minutes, most of the patients were discharged in the second post operative day, more than 75% of the patients moved out side their beds after eight hours with little post operative pain and one to two doses of analgesia were given for most of them, the range of return of the patients to their usual activity was between 7-18 days with a median of 10 days. Complications included wound infection in 12 patients, subphrenic abscess in one patient, retained stone in the C.B.D. in one case, myocardial infarction in one case. There were no injuries to C.B.D. or bowel during our operations