LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY IN ZIMBABWE - INITIAL REPORT

The laparoscopic approach has become the preferred technique of doing cholecystectomy in many parts of the world. In our initial experience with 19 patients we had no mortalities and no major complications. The average hospital stay was 2,9 days with all patients returning to nor mal activities seven days after discharge. Sixteen pc of cases were co nverted to open cholecystectomy due to difficulties in defining the an atomy. The mean operating time was 159 minutes. We believe that laparo scopic cholecystectomy can be performed safely and that it does offer advantages to many patients.