Video-laparoscopic surgery role in acute cholecystitis

Abstract

Introduction: The acute cholecystitis is recognized as one of the main causes of the acute abdomen. Its treatment is mainly surgical, to avoid big complication and even death. Nowadays, thanks to the development reached by laparoscopic surgery, it is possible to carry out this kind of interventions using this method, with a scarce conversion index (necessity of making laparotomy to complete the surgical procedure).
Objective: Exposing the main results of the video-laparoscopic cholecystitis in the treatment of acute cholecystitis.
Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study.
Context: Emergency service of the Teaching Military Hospital "Dr. Mario Muñoz Monroy". Universe: 70 patients operated of acute cholecystitis by video-laparoscopic surgery in the period from February 2000 to June 2009.
Variables: Genre, age, surgical time, diseases conditioning surgical risk, antecedents of previous surgery, more frequent complications, kind of surgery, conversion causes, hospital staying and mortality.
Main results: The most affected genre was the female one (66 %); the average age was 50 years; the average surgical time was 42 minutes; the main risk disease was arterial hypertension; 73 % of the patients did not have antecedents of surgery on the abdomen; there were complications related with the surgical act in 7,1 % of the cases, and there were post-surgery complications in 12,8 % of the cases. The conversion index was 2,8 %. 88,6 % of the patients had a hospital staying of less than 24 hours, and the general mortality was 1,4 %.