Introduction:

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the preferred technique for patients with indication for gallbladder extraction. Nevertheless, up to near 20% of them require conversion to open surgery. In this study we evaluated preoperative risk factors for conversion in patients undergoing emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Methodology:

a case-control unmatched study was conducted. Sociodemographic

Information and other variables were obtained from the medical records of patients that underwent surgery in the period 2013 to 2016. Reasons for conversion were identified and the study population was characterized. Correlations tests were established and logistic regression was performed for evaluating the role of confounding factors.

Results:

we analyzed the medical records of 444 patients (111 cases and 333 controls). The most common reasons for conversion were technical difficulty (50,5%), older age, male sex, previous open upper abdominal surgery, Murphy’s sign, bile duct dilation, total white cell count >12.000/mm3, and a more experienced surgeon. Area under COR was 0.743 (CI95% 0.692-0.794, p= <0.001).

Discussion:

some factors increase the risk for conversion to open surgery in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Most of them are related to an advanced gallbladder inflammatory process, thus early and timely intervention should be the gold standard in the management of patients with surgical gallbladder pathology.

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