Comparison of outcome of male versus female laparoscopic cholecystectomy: BMI-adjusted prospective observational study

Abstract

Background. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the choice of treatment for symptomatic cholelithiasis and has replaced open cholecystectomy. Numerous studies and scoring system have been developed over the past 2–3 decades which predict the rate of conversion of laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy. Recently, few scoring systems have been developed which incorporates various intraoperative findings to predict this conversion. No studies are available in literature to assess gender-specific and body weight complications in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of laparoscopic cholecystectomy between male and female patients in terms of preoperative factors, intraoperative difficulties and rate of conversion to open cholecystectomy and common postoperative complications. Materials and methods. This non-randomized, prospective, observational study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Northern India from June 2019 to May 2021. Various preoperative data was collected from the patients like age, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class, comorbidity, indication for surgery, preoperative ultrasonography findings and any previous surgery. Surgeries in all patients were started with laparoscopic cholecystectomy under general anaesthesia. The outcomes were measured in terms of time taken to complete surgery, whether laparoscopic cholecystectomy was converted to open cholecystectomy, common bile duct/cystic duct injury during surgery, common postoperative complications and average length of hospital stay in days. Results. A total of 300 patients were included in the study: 222 females and 78 males. Mean age of presentation in women was (46.45±11.55) years ranging from 21 to 71 years and in men (51.78±11.49) years ranging from 36 years to 76 years. This difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). The other significant preoperative differences between males and females were comorbidity (p=0.001) and previous surgeries (p=0.001). However, the ASA class under which the patients were operated was not significant (p=0.998). The various indications for surgery to include chronic cholecystitis, resolved acute cholecystitis, gallstone-induced pancreatitis and common bile duct stone had no statistical difference between men and women (p=0.072). Conclusions. This study concludes that intraoperative difficulties were more often in male patients as compared to females. The average operating time, conversion of laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy and postoperative hospital stay were significantly higher in men than in women.