[Acute cholecystitis: is it still justified to delay surgery?]

Acute cholecystitis treatment may initially be surgical or conservative with subsequent surgery; we reviewed the cases found in our centre, including their treatment and outcome.

We conducted a retrospective study of treatment in 178 patients with acute cholecystitis during one year. We evaluated variables associated with patient characteristics, as well as clinical data, diagnostic tests, treatment and outcome.

The majority (70.2%) was treated conservatively (group A), and 29.8% were operated on in the first 72 h (group B). In group A, 96 patients were treated with antibiotics, 15 with antibiotic therapy and cholecystectomy, and 12 with antibiotics and ERCP. In group B urgent laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed in 60.4%, and 35.8% had open cholecystectomy. In group A, admission time was 11 days, with satisfactory progress in 79.2%, mortality rate of 5.6% and 10.7% of readmissions. In group B, operation time was 111 +/- 43 min, a mean of 8.7 days hospital stay, and 68% of cases did not require further treatment after surgery. Outcome was satisfactory in all but 7, there was no mortality in this group. We had a return rate of 2%.

A significant proportion of conservative treatment was carried out at the expense of emergency surgery, although in absolute numbers conservative treatment seems to have a higher rate of complications, mortality and hospitalisation time.