Publication:

Early versus delayed cholecystectomy in acute cholecystitis: a comparative study in a tertiary care hospital

Background For patients with acute cholecystitis the timing of operative intervention has two broad approaches- early cholecystectomy and elective or delayed cholecystectomy. The main advantage of early cholecystectomy is that, it offers a definitive treatment during the same admission and avoids the problem of failed conservative treatment. The present study is an endeavour to discuss and to compare the outcome of management of acute cholecystitis with early and delayed cholecystectomy.

Methods 100 patients with clinical diagnosis of acute cholecystitis, admitted in the surgical wards of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital during the period of 1st July 2017 to 30th June 2018 were selected for the study. 40 patients underwent early cholecystectomy (within 7 days of onset of symptoms) and 60 patients underwent elective or late cholecystectomy (after a gap of 6-8 weeks from the acute attack).

Results In the present series the average duration of surgery was 90.37±11.96 minutes in the early group and 65.3±7.83 minutes for the elective group which is found to be statistically significant (p value<0.05). In the early surgery group 8.33% required conversion to open surgery. In the elective surgery group 3.63% required conversion. Wound infection, biliary leakage, bile duct injury, and respiratory tract infection was found to be statistically not significant between the two groups.

Conclusions Early cholecystectomy is feasible and safe for acute cholecystitis and is better method of treatment because of its shorter hospital stay, which is a major economic benefit to both the patient and health care system.