LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY FOR ACUTE CHOLECYSTITIS

Thirty-five patients with acute cholecystitis were operated on in a pe riod of 17 months at Bayindir Medical Center. Open cholecystectomy (OC ) was performed in 12 patients, and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) was attempted in 23 of the patients. LC was successfully completed in 20 patients (conversion rate 13%). LC and OC groups were compared acco rding to the sex, age, operative time, postoperative hospital stay, an d gallbladder wall thickness. The differences in the mean operative ti me and mean days of postoperative hospital stay between the two groups were significant (p < 0.01). There were three (15%) and two (13.3%) p ostoperative complications in the LC and OC groups, respectively. In a cute cholecystitis, LC increases the operative time but decreases the hospital stay compared with OC. LC does not increase the intraoperativ e and postoperative complication rates.