Late onset of subcutaneous emphysema and hypercarbia following laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Laparoscopic surgical techniques are increasingly being applied to treat in traperitoneal abnormalities. These minimally invasive techniques potentiall y offer decreased operation time, decreased morbidity, and decreased length of hospitalization stays. These procedures, however are not without potent ial morbidity. Herein we describe two patients treated with laparoscopic ch olecystectomy whose cases were complicated with subcutaneous emphysema and hypercarbia without pneumothorax, In each of these cases, carbon dioxide ga s was used to induce pneumoperitoneum, In one of the cases, the hypercarbia was a late event occurring during the surgery, and in the second case, the first such description in the literature (to our knowledge), hypercarbia d eveloped after termination of the induced pneumoperitoneum.