Preoperative difficulty assessment of interval laparoscopic cholecystectomy for gallstones

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard treatment for benign gallbladder disease. However, few studies have reported the difficulty of interval cholecystectomy after cholecystitis because early cholecystectomy is recommended for acute cholecystitis. In this study, we evaluated the difficulties associated with interval cholecystectomy for cholecystitis with gallstones.

We retrospectively analyzed patients with gallstones who underwent interval laparoscopic cholecystectomy for cholecystitis at our institution between January 2012 and December 2021. Patients were classified into laparoscopic total cholecystectomy and bailout procedure groups depending on whether they were converted to a bailout procedure, and their characteristics and outcomes were subsequently compared. Additionally, a logistic regression analysis of the preoperative factors contributing to bailout procedure conversion was performed.

Of the 269 participants, 39 converted to bailout procedure, and bile duct injury occurred in one case (0.4%). In patient characteristics comparison, patients in the bailout procedure group were significantly older, had more impacted stones, had higher post-treatment choledocholithiasis, had severe cholecystitis, and had a higher rate of percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage. There were no differences in the bile duct injury or perioperative complications between the two groups. In logistic regression multivariate analysis of the factors contributing to the bailout procedure, post-treatment of choledocholithiasis (P < .001), impacted stone (P = .002), and age ≥71 (P = .007) were independent risk factors.

Impacted stones and choledocholithiasis are risk factors for conversion to bailout procedure and high difficulty in interval cholecystectomy. For such patients, interval cholecystectomy should be performed cautiously.