Day case Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: experience at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University

Day case surgery offers convenience to the patients and cost saving to the healthcare institutes. In this prospective study, the authors reviewed their experience with day case Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (LC) to determine its outcome in the government healthcare settings of Bangladesh. Selection criteria's for the day case LC were patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis with ASA (American Society of anesthesiologists) grade I or II, the availability of a responsible carer, absence of morbid obesity, low risk for concomitant presence of bile duct stones and domicile within Dhaka and around. Patients were admitted in the post operative ward as day case (DC) in the morning and were discharged on the next morning with a standard analgesia. Two hundred ten patients were admitted for LC as day cases over the last 7 years from October 2003 to October 2010 on the morning operation theatre lists. Five patients later required admission to the inpatient department for conversion to the open procedure. None of the patients was readmitted after discharge. Majority patients were followed up after 1st and 6th week. Two hundred seven patients attended for the follow up at the 1st week and 158 patients were reported for the 6th week. One hundred ninety six patients resumed their normal job or activities after one week. Patient's satisfaction was assessed by questionnaires. Two hundred five patients were either satisfied or very satisfied with the day-case procedure. It appears that for selected groups of patients, day-case LC can be safely done in government healthcare settings of Bangladesh with good patient satisfaction.