An experience of laparoscopic cholecystectomy from Secondary Care Center of Pakistan

Background: laparoscopic cholecystectomy (lc) is one of the most commonly performed procedures in general surgery. however,in developing countries like pakistan,still open surgery is commonly performed except tertiary care hospitals. we present our data and case series from a secondary care center of pakistan over our experience of lc. aim: to determine the frequency of complications and other outcomes associated with lc in our secondary care setup. methods: this case series was conducted at two medical centers of gujranwala,pakistan over a period of 1 year from january,2016 to december,2016. all the patients undergoing lc with the age of 18-60 years were included in the study. their demographic details including age,gender,clinical findings and laboratory investigations were entered on the proforma. also the indication for cholecystectomy,conversion into open procedure,complications and biopsy report were assessed. all the data were analyzed using spss version 20. results: a total of 102 patients were included in the study. the mean age of the patients was found to be 46.23±16.79 years. majority of patients in our study were females (71.6%). among lc's,55 procedures (53.9%) were done electively for cholelithiasis,23 operations (22.5%) were done as interval cholecystectomy after an attack of cholecystitis while 24 operations (23.5%) were performed for acute cholecystitis. in none of these patients,laparoscopy was needed to be converted into open surgery. the most common post-operative complication was found to be right upper quadrant (ruq) pain which was found in 8 patients (7.8%).the mean stay of the patients in hospital was found as 3.57 ±3.47 days. in our study,of 102 patients,6 patients needed re-admission. the most common histology report was chronic infection in 74 patients (72.5%) while metaplasia was found in 1 patient conclusion: lc is a safe procedure with minimum mortality and morbidity associated with it and may be performed routinely in resource limited centers and countries. however,its learning curve is long and surgeon needs to be patient and experienced enough to have minimum complications.