Surgical Results of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Gallbladder Torsion

Gallbladder torsion (GT) causes ischemia of the gallbladder, which potentially leads to a fatal condition. Consequently, GT requires urgent treatment. An urgent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) might be the optimal approach, in view of the anatomical abnormality, "floating gallbladder," which is associated with GT. However, the feasibility of LC for GT has not been well investigated. Thus, in this study, we investigated the feasibility of LC for GT in a case series. A total of 393 patients underwent urgent LC for acute gallbladder diseases at our institution during the study period. Among these patients, six had GT (1.5%) and were enrolled in this study. We retrospectively analyzed the surgical results of LC. Of the six cases, four (66.7%) were correctly diagnosed with GT preoperatively. There were two cases of Type I and four cases of Type II, based on the Gross classification for GT. The median operation time and intraoperative bleeding volume were 64 minutes and 18 mL, respectively. No cases required conversion to open surgery. All six cases experienced an uneventful postoperative course. The median postoperative hospital stay was six days. The surgical results of LC were favorable for six cases of GT. These results showed that LC was feasible for GT.