Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in gallstone patients with acute cholecystitis

It remains controversial whether patients with gallstones with acute cholec ystitis should be operated on early, or whether surgery should be delayed u ntil the acute phase subsides. To help resolve this question, we retrospect ively studied 109 patients with acute cholecystitis, 56 of whom underwent l aparoscopic cholecystectomy after acute cholecystitis had subsided (delayed group) and 53 of whom underwent early laparoscopic cholecystectomy-within 7 days after admission (early group). On admission, the inflammatory findin gs in the two groups were very similar; however, at operation, the inflamma tory findings were alleviated in the delayed group, while they remained unc hanged in the early group. The mean operative time for the two groups was v ery similar. As for intraoperative complications, there was no conversion t o laparotomy in either group, and there were no major complications in eith er group. The total hospital stay was 37.7 +/- 14.4 days for the delayed gr oup and 12.7 +/- 2.0 days for the early group, showing a highly significant difference (P < 0.001). Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy seems to be bet ter than delayed treatment for patients with gallstones with acute cholecys titis.