Laparoscopic versus open surgical approach of cholecystectomy in patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis: a systematic review of comparative trials

Abstract

Symptomatic cholelithiasis (gallstone disease) is the most common biliary pathology that affects women predominantly around the world. Earlier open cholecystectomy was the gold standard of treatment of this disease before introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The aim of this study is to systematically review the most recent published data that compared laparoscopic with open cholecystectomy in symptomatic cholelithiasis in terms of operative and post-operative morbidity, mortality, operative time, length of hospital stay, and conversion rates. The Medline, Cochrane library, Embase, and PubMed databases were vigorously searched for trials that compared laparoscopic with open cholectstectomy in patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis, a systematic review of these comparative trials was performed. No mortality was detected in both groups; the conversion rate was 6.75%. The laparoscopic approach associated with significantly shorter hospital stay (2.31 versus 4.42 days, p value>0.001), lower post-operative pain duration (30.5 versus 66.9 hours, p value>0.001) and lower rate of post-operative wound infection (2.8% versus 10.5%, p value>0.001). Regarding operative time it was significantly longer in laparoscopic approach (77.3 versus 67.1 min, p value>0.001), there were no significant differences in the rates of bile duct injury (0.84% versus 0.25%, p value=0.08) and intra-operative bleeding (4.2% versus 3.5%, p value=0.81) between the two procedures. Post-operative wound infection and pain duration in addition to length of hospital stay in patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis were reduced with laparoscopic cholecystectomy. However, the laparoscopic approach associated with longer duration of surgery. No significant differences between the two procedures in the rates of bile duct injury and intra-operative bleeding.