Analysis of Factors Which Reduce Operation Time in Performance of Single Incision Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is a rapidly evolving technique which bridges traditional laparoscopic surgery and natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). We previously published a study comparing single port laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SPLC) and three port laparoscopic cholecystectomy (TPLC). We concluded that age, sex, diagnosis, body mass index (BMI), length of hospital stay, and mobilization between SPLC and TPLC produced no effect on the surgical requirements or outcomes between the two techniques. However, there were significant differences in operating time and pain scale. Thus, in this study we aimed to analyze those factors which reduced operating time. METHODS: This retrospective medical record review enrolled 49 patients who had received SPLC at Presbyterian Medical Center from April 2009 to November 2010. Patient age, sex, BMI, length of hospital stay, operating time, pathological reports, and incidents of iatrogenic gallbladder (GB) perforation and complications were assessed and analyzed. For determining those factors which necessitated long operating times, we assessed the operating times relative to incidents of iatrogenic GB perforation, pathologic report results, surgeon experience and patient BMI. RESULTS: The ratio of men to women in the study population was 1 : 6. The average patient age was 46 years (range of 21 to 93 years). The average BMI was 24.1 (range of 18.5 to 31.5). The mean duration of hospital stay was 5.12 days (range of 2 to 15 days). The average operating time was 118 minutes (range of 75 minutes to 185 minutes). The pathologic report assessments revealed cases of acute calculous cholecystitis (n=4, 8.2%), chronic calculous cholecystitis (n=37, 76.1%) and GB polyp (n=8, 16.3%). Iatrogenic perforation of the GB occurred in 5 cases. Minor complications such as surgical site infection and umbilical skin burn occurred in 6 cases. Longer operating times were required in the GB perforation cases than in the non-perforation cases (155+/-21.21 minutes versus 113.9+/-30.71 minutes, p=0.008). Of the cases of acute and chronic calculous cholecystitis and GB polyp, those including acute calculous cholecystitits required the longest operation times. The average operating time for the first 25 cases was 134.6+/-33.16 minutes and the average operating time for the remainder was 100.8+/-20.41 minutes (p=0.001). There was no significant difference in operating time between the BMI>24 and BMI<24 groups (125.9+/-35.17 minutes versus 111.2+/-27.65 minutes, respectively, p=0.112). CONCLUSION: We found 3 factors related to a reduction in operation time: (i) avoidance of iatrogenic perforation of the GB, (ii) application of treatment to case of chronic calculous cholecystitis and GB polyp, and (iii) accumulation of case experience by the attending surgeon.