Benefits of Percutaneous Transhepatic Gallbladder Drainage for Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in Patients with Acute Cholecystitis

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate surgical outcomes of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and the effect of preoperative percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) in patients with acute cholecystitis. In particular, we concentrated on differences in surgical outcomes between elective and emergency operations. METHODS: Between March 2006 and February 2009, 259 cases of acute cholecystitis underwent LC at our institution and we studied them retrospectively. They were divided into 3 groups. Group I included 153 patients who underwent elective LC without PTGBD; group II included 90 patients who underwent elective LC after PTGBD; group III included 16 patients who underwent emergency LC without PTGBD. RESULTS: Between groups I and III, there were no differences in conversion rate, postoperative complications, and total hospital stay. However, the operation times and postoperative hospital stays of group I were shorter than those of group III and the difference was significant (p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively). Between groups II and III, there were no differences in operation time, conversion rate, postoperative complications, and postoperative hospital stay. CONCLUSION: We recommend PTGBD for a patient with acute cholecystitis as much as possible, if indicated, so that we can do the operation on the patient as elective surgery and not as an emergency.