Intraoperative complexity and risk factors associated with conversion to open surgery during laparoscopic...

The conversion to open surgery (COS) during the Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (LC) is reported to occur at a rate of 10-15%. Some preoperative risk factors (RF) have been postulated; however, few studies have evaluated these factors and the intraoperative complexity with the COS rate. The aim of the study was to evaluate the preoperative RF and intraoperative complexity using the Parkland grading scale (PGS) with the COS rate in LC.

A retrospective study was done evaluating the demographic and surgical variables from the patients and LC videos from 8 different hospitals of Mexico City from December 2018 to January 2020. The evaluation of the PGS was done by 2 surgeons (one MI and one HPB surgeon); the PGS was also categorized as Non-Complex LC (nCLC, PGS1-2) and Complex LC (CLC, PGS 3-5). Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of this factors with the COS rate.

430 LC were analyzed; 358 (78.61%) were women, 261 (60.7%) were elective and 169(39.3%) urgent LC, the mean age was 44.06 (SD ± 13.16) years. 21 (4.8%) LC were COS; the mean age of this group was 55 (SD ± 12.95), 3 (0.7%) were nCLC and 18 (4.19%) CLC, mean PGS of 3.76 (SD ± 1.09), the mean time to COS was 48.67 (SD ± 41.9), the estimated blood loss (EBL) was 258 (SD ± 260.22) and 6 (1.4%) intraoperative BDI were recognized on this group. Univariate analysis showed a significant association with the COS with male sex, older age, age > 45 years, presence of comorbidities, a higher PGS, a CLC, higher EBL and possible BDI; multivariate analysis produced a model using male sex, age, presence of comorbidities and a CLC with a 0.809 area under the ROC curve.

The recognition of the associated RF and a CLC can guide the surgeon to establish preoperative and bailout strategies during the procedure, recognizing a higher risk of COS and its higher morbidity.