• Wagih Ghnnam, Jawid Malek, Emad Shebl, Turky Elbeshry, and Ahmad Ibrahim.
• Department of General Surgery, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine, 1 Elbahr Street, Elgomhoria, Mansoura, Egypt. wghnnam@gmail.com
• Ann Saudi Med. 2010 Mar 1; 30 (2): 145148145-8.

Background And ObjectivesProblems during laparoscopic cholecystectomy include bile duct injury, conversion to open operation, and other postoperative complications. We retrospectively evaluated the causes for conversion and the rate of conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy and assessed the postoperative complications.MethodsOf 340 patients who presented with symptomatic gall bladder disease over a 2-year period, 290 (85%) patients were evaluated on an elective basis and scheduled for surgery, while the remaining 50 (14.7%) patients were admitted emergently with a diagnosis of acute cholecystitis.ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 41.9 (12.6) years. Conversion to laparotomy occurred in 17 patients (5%). The incidence of complications was 3.2%. The most common complication was postoperative transient pyrexia, which was seen in four patients (1.2%) followed by postoperative wound infection in three patients (0.9%), postoperative fluid collection and bile duct injury in two patients each (0.6%).ConclusionLaparoscopic cholecystectomy remains the 'gold standard' by which all other treatment modalities are judged. Conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy should be based on the sound clinical judgment of the surgeon and not be due to a lack of individual expertise.

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