Publication:

Outcome of comparative study of mini-laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is considered the gold standard for cholecystectomy procedures. In recent years, many investigators have attempted to further improve the established technique of LC with the goal of minimising invasiveness of this procedure by reducing the number and size of the operating ports and instruments.

Methods This was a retrospective study done in a tertiary care hospital comparing the safety and efficacy of mini-laparoscopic cholecystectomy (MLC) with conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy (CLC) done during the time period of June 2020 to January 2022 based on the variables like total operating time, post-operative pain, conversion rate to open procedure, duration of hospital stay and cosmetic results.

Results Out of 40 cases were collected and analysed, MLC has an advantage over CLC like postop pain on postop day 1 (p=0.016) and on postop day 3 (0.025) and postoperative scar (p<0.001). In aspects like duration of hospital stay (p=0.359) and operating time (p=0.805) MLC is equally comparable to CLC. CLC is proved to be better than MLC in one aspect- conversion to open cholecystectomy (p=0.042).

Conclusions Miniaturised instrumentation is an area of research which is studied for the past 3 decades. Although improved instrument durability and better optics are needed for widespread use of miniport techniques, this MLC approach can be routinely offered to many properly selected patients undergoing elective LC.