Conversions in laparoscopic cholecystectomy--need for a new nomenclature.

ABSTRACT

Reasons for conversion from laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) to open cholecystectomy (OC) were analysed in 47 patients. In 35 patients, the surgeon converted LC to OC by choice because of difficult anatomy or difficult pathology while in 12 patients the surgeon was forced to convert from LC to OC because of complications. We propose that conversions from LC to OC should be classified into two groups-"conversions-by-choice" and "conversions-per-force".