Laparoscopic cholecystectomy: incidents and complications. Analysis of 8002 consecutive cholecystectomies performed at the Surgical Clinic III Cluj-Napoca

Incidents and postoperative complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) are analyzed based on a series of 8002 patients who underwent the procedure during a period of seven years. Conversion rate was 2.02% (161 cases) and 6 (0.07%) death were encountered. Intraoperative hemorrhage (2.43%) could be controlled by intraoperative haemostasis in all but 8 patients (bleeding from the hepatic bed and from the cystic artery) which required conversion. Lesions of the bile ducts occurred in 16 patients (0.2%), 13 of them being identified during the operation and solved by conversion or laparoscopic choledochorraphy (for a tangential lesion). Postoperative complications required re-intervention in 45 patients: 11 for bile leak, 19 for choleperitoneum, 6 for hemorrhage, 4 for subhepatic abscesses and 5 for remnant CBD lithiasis. There was 1 puncture of the Douglas pouch in a case of choleperitoneum, 7 laparoscopic re-interventions and 25 open surgery re-interventions. EST solved postoperative bile leaks (from the gallbladder bed) successfully in 7 cases and remnant CBD lithiasis (5 cases). So, 44% of the cases were treated by minimally invasive means (laparoscopic re-interventions or endoscopic procedures). The majority of the incidents and postoperative complications were linked to the presence of an acute cholecystitis and were partially due to some technical limits of the laparoscopic technique of the gallbladder bed peritonisation. The minimally invasive treatment of postoperative complications, was very efficient and offered optimum healing conditions.