Experience with laparoscopic cholecystectomy at the Toa Payoh Hospital

A retrospective analysis was done of 88 cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed by the first author from November 1990 to March 1992 at the Toa Payoh Hospital. There were 61 female and 27 male patients; the average age was 47.1 years. The most common presenting symptom was biliary colic (85.3%), followed by acute cholecystitis (10.2%) and gallstone pancreatitis (4.5%). In the vast majority of patients, the diagnosis was established by ultrasound (96.6%) while the remainder was diagnosed by oral cholecystography (3.4%). The operation was performed using the usual 4 puncture approach with the single-handed technique of dissection. Antibiotic prophylaxis with a broad-spectrum agent was used in all patients and there was no incidence of wound infection. A low complication rate of 4.5% was experienced--consisting of 1 case each of subcutaneous emphysema, abdominal colic, fever and bile duct injury. There was no mortality in our series. The conversion rate was 9.1% and this was due to our policy of performing laparotomy whenever the safety of laparoscopic surgery was in doubt. The mean duration of postoperative hospitalisation was 3 days and 7 days after laparoscopic and converted cholecystectomies respectively. The majority of patients (61.4%) returned to work after 2 weeks.