A domparative study of early versus delayed laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis

Introduction- Inflammation of the gall bladder is known as acute cholecystitis. Sudden pain in the upper right of the abdomen along with bloating, vomiting, fever, tenderness are symptoms of acute cholecystitis. Laproscopic cholecystectomy is considered to be the gold standard for the treatment of acute cholecystitis. Objective- To compare operative and post-operative outcomes like operating time, injury to bile ducts, postoperative pain, total length of hospital stay, need for conversion to open cholecystectomy between immediate and late LC. Methodology- Sixty-eight patients aged between 18 to 60 years having acute cholecystitis admitted for laparoscopic cholecystectomy were included. Patients were categorized and analyzed based on length of time from presentation to surgery. We defined operation of cholecystectomy within 3 days of presentation as ‘early’ laparoscopic cholecystectomy and anywhere after 3 days as ‘delayed’ laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Results: The p value obtained for ROFA is 0.042. and that for Pain scale is 0.027. Since the p value is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected and we can conclude that there is a statistically significant difference between the means of two groups with respect to these factors. Conclusion- Both early and delayed laparoscopic cholecystectomy is possible and safe in the treatment of acute cholecystitis but return to full activity is early and pain scale is less in cases of early cholecystectomy.