Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in elderly patients

ABSTRACT

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was done for twenty patients. The results showed that it was a safe technique as the success rate was 95% with no mortality and a complication rate of 15.7%. The complications were operative bleeding in two cases and bile leakage in one case, all of them were controlled during the procedure. The mean operative time was 82 minutes and the mean length of hospital stay was 2.2 days. Only one patient required conversion of the laparoscopic procedure to laparotomy because he was found to have a carcinoma of the gallbladder during the procedure. The above results are encouraging, however, laparoscopic cholecystectomy should be applied in elderly patients on a wide scale, for better evaluation. Age alone should not be a contraindication to this procedure, as elderly patients should share its benefits of less postoperative pain, hence shorter postoperative bedridden time and lower incidence of respiratory complications, also, less incidence of wound infection and shorter hospital stay