Abstract

Mohammad E. M. Mahfouz, Tamer M. Abdelrahman*, Atif A. M. Althobaiti and Shatha M. K. Althobaiti

ABSTRACT

Background: Minimally invasive cholecystectomy surgery is getting popular all over the world and has many advantages even in cases of acute cholecystitis, conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy is still common. The aim to evaluate and determining the conversion rate to open method in cases of acute versus chronic cholecystitis, also to analyze any predictive factors that may impact the decision to conversion. Material and Methods: this retrospective cross-sectional, descriptive study at King Faisal hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia, within a period of last three years. Demographics, comorbid disease, post-operative complications, the incidence and causes of conversion, operation timing, complications, and duration of hospital stay were analysed as factors that can possibly act on conversion. Results: 5.2% of the acute cholecystitis group required conversion to open method cholecystectomy, while 3.8% patients of the chronic cholecystitis group required conversion but this difference didn’t reach statistical significance. In both acute and chronic converted cases, dense adhesion was found to be the most common cause of conversion, followed by obscure anatomy. Conclusion: Dense adhesion followed by obscure anatomy are the commonest cause of conversion and thus, the rate of conversions can be reduced with a prompt approach to predictive factors.