Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: Surgical Experience of a Single Unit at a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the gold standard for the management of benign gall stone disease and is the most commonly done surgery worldwide. In this study, we share our experience of laparoscopic cholecystectomies done in a single unit at our tertiary care centre and elaborate the difficulties and complications faced in order to find a correlation between the pre and intra operative variables and the degree of difficulty of surgery. Methods: All elective laparoscopic cholecystectomies done for benign gall stone disease in a single unit at Department of General Surgery at our tertiary care hospital from Jan 2018 till December 2018 were evaluated and the pre-operative and intra operative variables were assessed and compared. Results: A total of 70 patients were evaluated out of which 57 were females. We saw that Body Mass Index (BMI), impaction of stone at Gall bladder (GB) neck and cystic artery bleed were significant factors for increased duration of surgery and intra operative complications while factors such as aberrant anatomy and male gender were not significant in our study. Discussion: There is no level 1 evidence showing correlation between the pre and intra operative variables and their association with difficult LC. So we need to explore this area more and find strong evidences so that we could predict in which patient's laparoscopic cholecystectomy is going to be difficult so that the surgeon may be prepared accordingly.