Abdominal lift for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (key-hole removal of the gallbladder) is now the most often used method for treatment of symptomatic gallstones. Several cardiopulmonary changes (decreased cardiac output, pulmonary compliance, and increased peak airway pressure) occur during pneumoperitoneum, which is now introduced to allow laparoscopic cholecystectomy. These cardiopulmonary changes may not be tolerated in individuals with poor cardiopulmonary reserve.

To assess the benefits and harms of abdominal wall lift compared with pneumoperitoneum in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

We searched the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index Expanded until January 2012.

We included all randomised clinical trials comparing abdominal wall lift (with or without pneumoperitoneum) versus pneumoperitoneum.

We calculated the risk ratio (RR), rate ratio (RaR), or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) based on intention-to-treat analysis with both the fixed-effect and the random-effects models using RevMan software.

For abdominal wall lift with pneumoperitoneum versus pneumoperitoneum, a total of 156 participants (all with low anaesthetic risk) who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomised in six trials to abdominal wall lift with pneumoperitoneum (n = 65) versus pneumoperitoneum only (n = 66). One trial which included 25 patients did not state the number of patients in each group. All six trials had a high risk of bias. There was no mortality or conversion to open cholecystectomy in any of the patients in the trials that reported these outcomes. There was no significant difference in the rate of serious adverse events between the two groups (2 trials; 2/29 events (0.069 events per patient) versus 2/29 events (0.069 events per patient); rate ratio 1.00; 95% CI 0.17 to 5.77). None of the trials reported quality of life, the proportion of patients discharged as day-patient laparoscopic cholecystectomies, or pain between four and eight hours after the operation. There was no significant difference in the operating time between the two groups (4 trials; 53 patients versus 54 patients; 13.39 minutes longer (2.73 less to 29.51 longer) in the abdominal wall lift with pneumoperitoneum group and 100 minutes in the pneumoperitoneum group).For abdominal wall lift versus pneumoperitoneum, a total of 774 participants (the majority with low anaesthetic risk) who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomised in 18 trials to abdominal wall lift without pneumoperitoneum (n = 332) versus pneumoperitoneum (n = 358). One trial which included 84 patients did not state the number of patients in each group. All the trials had a high risk of bias. There was no mortality in any of the trials that reported this outcome. There was no significant difference in the rate of serious adverse events between the two groups (6 trials; 5/172 events (weighted number of events per patient = 0.020 events) versus 2/171 events (0.012 events per patient); rate ratio 1.73; 95% CI 0.35 to 8.61). None of the trials reported quality of life or pain between four and eight hours after the operation. There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients who underwent conversion to open cholecystectomy (11 trials; 5/225 (weighted proportion 2.3%) versus 7/235 (3.0%); RR 0.76; 95% CI 0.26 to 2.21). The operating time was significantly longer in the abdominal wall lift group than the pneumoperitoneum group (16 trials; 6.87 minutes longer (4.74 to 9.00 longer) in the abdominal wall lift group; 75 minutes in the pneumoperitoneum group). There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients who were discharged as day-patient laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients (2 trials; 15/31 (weighted proportion 48.5%) versus 9/31 (29%); RR 1.67; 95% CI 0.85 to 3.26).

Abdominal wall lift does not seem to offer an advantage over pneumoperitoneum in any of the patient-oriented outcomes for laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with low anaesthetic risk. It may increase costs by increasing the operating time. Hence it cannot be recommended routinely. The safety of abdominal wall lift is yet to be established. More research on the topic is needed because of the risk of bias in the included trials and because of the risk of type I and type II random errors because of the few patients included in the trials. Such trials ought to include patients at higher anaesthetic risk. Furthermore, such trials ought to include blinded assessment of outcome measures.