Frequency of Complications Following Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in Alzahra Teaching Hospital, Isfahan, Iran (2009-2011)

Gallstone is one of the commonly encountered diseases in the general population. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is now accepted as the “gold standard” for the treatment of gallstone. The purpose of this study was to present our data about the type and the incidence of complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. A retrospective study was performed on the medical records of patients underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the 2009 to 2011 in Alzahra Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. 683 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed during this period, of which, 314 cases were selected randomly and studied. The data were analyzed using chi-square, Fisher's exact and t tests. Among 314 studied patients, 75 (23.9%) were men and 239 (76.1%) were women. 248 cases (79.0%) with indication of biliary colic, 56 (17.8%) with acute cholecystitis, 9 (2.9%) with biliary pancreatitis and 1 (0.3%) for gallbladder polyps were operated. The complications associated to laparoscopic cholecystectomy were reported in 12 cases (3.8%). The most common complication was bile leakage in 4 patients (1.3%) occurred by stenosis after the surgery in 3 cases (1.0%). Other complications were gallstones remaining in 2 cases (0.6%), bleeding in 1 case (0.3%), thromboembolism in 1 case (0.3%) and pneumothorax in 1 case (0.3%). Conversion to open surgery was required for 4 patients (1.3%) and no deaths were reported. Our study suggests that laparoscopic cholecystectomy, as the procedure of choice for gallbladder stone treatment, has been associated with a high success rate and the incidence of complications was acceptably low.