An observational study to assess the factors predicting difficulty during laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Background: Gall stones are the most common biliary pathology. It is estimated that gall stones affect 10-15 per cent of the population in western societies. They are symptomatic in the majority of cases (>80%) in the UK, the prevalence of gallstones at the time of death is estimated to be 17 per cent and may be increasing. Objectives: To study the preoperative factors (by clinical assessment and ultrasound study) and intraoperative factors to assess the difficulty level in laparoscopic cholecystectomy, to predict the level of difficulty in laparoscopic cholecystectomy based on pre-operative factors and score, to correlate the pre-operative score to the outcome of surgery. Results: The present study included 70 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Government general hospital, Nizamabad, from November 2017 to October 2018. Out of 70 cases in the present study, 29 cases (41.4%) were in the age group of 41-50 years, 20 cases (28.6%) were in the age group of 31-40 years, 14 cases (20%) were in the 51-60 years age group. Conclusion: In patients with these risk factors, management can be improved by identifying patients who may require open approach, preoperative counseling and informed consent from the patient, assisting the surgery with appropriate arrangement of resources in the operation theatre, early conversion to open cholecystectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]