A NATIONS EXPERIENCE IN LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY - PROSPECTIVE MULTICENTER ANALYSIS OF 3722 CASES

In a national prospective multicenter study 3,722 laparoscopic cholecy stectomies (LC) performed by 179 surgeons in 50 institutions were anal yzed with special regard to technique and complications. Conversion to open cholecystectomy was necessary in 259 patients (7.0%), either wit hout intraoperative complications (4.5%) or due to intraoperative comp lications (2.5%). Three patients (0.08%) died within 30 days after ope ration and a total of 39 patients (1.0%) had to be reoperated; 22 (0.6 %) bile duct injuries were registered. Common bile duct (CBD) stones w ere treated mainly by ERCP. In eight cases laparoscopic removal of com mon bile duct stones was attempted, and it was performed successfully in six patients. Postoperatively patients were discharged home after a mean of 4.4 days and returned to work after 14.0 days (range: 2-28). Laparoscopic cholecystectomy became the golden standard to remove the gallbladder, but further development is needed to establish laparoscop ic treatment of biliary tract stones in the near future.