Hospital Enforcement of Early Cholecystectomy for Acute Cholecystitis

International guidelines state that early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (ELC) is appropriate for all severity grades of acute cholecystitis and leads to reduced hospital stays and costs. A multicenter prospective randomized controlled trial recommends ELC over delayed laparoscopic cholecystectomy (DLC) management because in addition to reduced hospital stays and costs, ELC also leads to reduced patient morbidity. Therefore, ELC is standard of care for acute cholecystitis. We hypothesize that 1) international guidelines are not presently followed and that 2) a quality improvement (QI) project enforcing ELC for acute cholecystitis will increase rates of ELC management. A retrospective chart review of all surgical consults for cholecystitis from January 2016 to December 2018 was undertaken. A total of 307 patients diagnosed with acute cholecystitis were included. ELC was defined as cholecystectomy within hospital admission. Pre-QI ELC versus DLC rates were 77.4 per cent (233/301) versus 22.6 per cent (68/301). Eight DLC patients (11.8%) returned to the ED after discharge secondary to persistent signs and symptoms of cholecystitis and 62.5 per cent (5/8) received an immediate cholecystectomy before their elective surgery date. After QI initiatives, ELC rates rose to 100 per cent (6/6). These data show there was a lack of consistent ELC management of acute cholecystitis.