Analysis of laparascopic cholecystectomies in 606 patients: Experience at King Fahad Hospital, Medina.

This is a retrospective study of 606 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy at King Fahad Hospital, Medina, Saudi Arabia. The majority of them, 488 (80.5%), were females. Fifty (8.3%) patients presented with acute cholecystitis and 556 (91.7%) were chronic cases. Common bile duct stones were detected in 22 (3.6%) patients. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was successful in 539 (89%) patients and converted to open cholecystectomy in 67 (11%) patients due to a variety of reasons. The mean operative time was 65.9 minutes. Most of the patients (64.7%) were discharged within 72 hours. There were no deaths in this series. The overall complication rate was 5.6% and the incidence of major ductal injury was 0.8%.