"Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Single Surgeon's Experience in some of the Teaching Hospitals of West Bengal"

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has revolutionized the management of symptomatic gallstone disease since its introduction more than 20 years ago. It has gained widespread acceptance and is presently the gold standard for its management. This large study spanned over last 10 years and includes prospective data on 950 elective cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy since 2002. All cases were operated personally by the author in different teaching hospitals of West Bengal. The following were looked into: profiles of the patients including major comorbidities requiring special precautions, the frequency of "difficult cholecystectomies," conversion rate, and operative and postoperative complications. The results showed that 75 % of the patients were females. The mean age of the female patients was 35 years (range15-75), while that of the male patients was 42 (range 18-68). Thirty-two patients had major comorbidities which required special precautions in the perioperative period. Twenty-six percent of the cases were categorized as "difficult," and 6 % of the cases had to be converted to open procedure. Major complications occurred in 11 patients of which five had to be converted. Fifty-five patients had port-site infection due to atypical mycobacteria species of which majority occurred in the last 1 year of the study. All of them responded to second-line antitubercular medications.