Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy - 1,000 Procedures in a Surgical Department
Uri Freund, Ami Mayo, Ivan Schwartz, David Neufeld, Haim Paran
Dept. of Surgery A, Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba; and Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
The first 1,000 laparoscopic cholecystectomies performed in our department were reviewed. There was no operative mortality; conversion to open cholecystectomy was necessary in 2%. In the last 600 cases the rate of conversion had decreased to 0.5%. There was common bile duct injury in 0.3%, with the injuries identified during primary surgery. This clinical experience is consistent with previous studies, which proved that laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and should replace open operation as the procedure of choice.