[Cholecystectomy by laparoscopy. Apropos 200 cases]

The technological progress applied to laparoscopic surgery has facilitated the introduction of the technique of cholecystectomy following this new method.

The results of a group of 200 patients with cholelithiasis who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy are presented. Twenty-eight patients (14%) present complicated cholelithiasis, from a technical point of view, since they were carriers of cholecystitis or had a scleroatrophic gallbladder. Only 7.5% of all of the patients attended were diagnosed of choledocholithiasis.

Operating time was similar to that employed for cholecystectomies by laparotomy (51 min in uncomplicated surgery and one hour and a half for complications). Among the results which may be emphasized is short postoperative hospitalization (less than 2 days), even when patients submitted to other operations during the same anesthesia are included, in addition to prompt reinsertion to daily activities. Moreover, the low rate of complications (5.5%) must be underlined and the lack of notoriety as well as the low rate of readmissions.

The good results obtained throughout the world following the use of laparoscopic cholecystectomy have placed this procedure as minimal invasive surgery, which, due to the notable reduction in surgical trauma, postoperative pain and fewer complications this procedure has become less uncomfortable for the patient.