ACALCULOUS CHOLECYSTITIS - THE USE OF DIAGNOSTIC LAPAROSCOPY

Acalculous cholecystitis (AC) carries a high mortality in the critical ly ill patient. This is partly due to the delay in its diagnosis. Clin ical diagnostic examinations are often misleading. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the use of laparoscopy as a diagnostic tool in t he evaluation of the critically ill patient suspected of having AC. Fr om May 1993 to January 1994, we evaluated 10 critically ill patients. Mean age was 56 years (range 17-90 years). Nine of the patients were t rauma victims (8 blunt, 1 penetrating). The other patient was post-cor onary bypass surgery. The laparoscopy was done after a mean of 15 days (range 6-54 days) after ICU admission. All patients were receiving ve ntilatory support, and all patients had elevated temperatures of great er than 38.5 degrees C. Five patients had abdominal tenderness, and 6 had elevated liver function tests (LFT). Six laparoscopies were done u nder local anesthesia and IV sedation at the bedside, and 4 were done in the operating room. All patients tolerated the procedure well with no complications. The laparoscopic findings were gangrenous cholecysti tis in 2 patients. They both underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomies in the operating room. We elected to drain a very distended gallbladde r in 1 patient, who eventually was found to have an empyema of the che st. The other 7 examinations were normal. Six of these patients recove red and were discharged. Our results suggest that laparoscopy can be u sed in the diagnosis of acalculous cholecystitis. Its positive and neg ative findings are valuable in the treatment of the critically ill. It can be done safely at the bedside.