Laparoscopic cholecystectomy - Local experience

Objectives: to evaluate the results of the first 100 cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in symptomatic gall stone disease in our unit. material and methods: it was a descriptive study,carried out in surgical a ward,department of surgery,khyber teaching hospital,peshawar,pakistan. this study was conducted from december 2006 to october 2008 including 100 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (lc). all patients with symptomatic gall stones were offered lc,excluding patients with cbd stones. results: there were 100 patients with symptomatic gallstones,eighty-four (84%) females and sixteen (16%) males. eighty percent of the patients had chronic cholecystitis with gall stones. this included 5 patients with mucocele and 2 patients with carcinoma as an incidental finding. twenty patients had acute cholecystitis. the mean operative time was 45.50 minutes. mean hospital stay was 2.30 days (range 1.5 - 4 days). our total conversion rate to open surgery was 4%. complications included port-site bleeding in 3 patients,port site infection in 3 patients,umbilical hernia in 2 patients and one patient presented with metastatic nodule at the epigastric port one year after cholecystectomy. conclusion: laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a reliable,safe and cost effective treatment modality for symptomatic gallstones. with growing experience in laparoscopic technique,it is possible to reduce the conversion rate to the minimum without any increase in mortality or morbidity.