Analysis of pre-operative factors predicting difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is considered the gold standard treatment for most gallbladder diseases. It has now become one of the most common operations performed by general surgeons. At times, it is difficult and takes longer time or some complications may occur or has to be converted in to open cholecystectomy. Objective: To study pre-operative factors in the patients to predict whether the laparoscopic cholecystectomy will be easy or difficult and to co-relate the pre-operative factors predicting a difficult Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy with intra-operative findings. Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the Department of General Surgery over a period of 2 years. Total 100 patients were included in the study. All patients were evaluated for risk factors preoperatively and intraoperative findings were noted. A chi-square test has been used to find the significant association of findings of the preoperative score with postoperative outcome. Results: 11 (11%) were males and 89 (89%) were females. In this series, age range for the enrolled patients was from 15 to 60 years. Majority were in the group 20-40 years of age (80 patients, 80%)