Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy after percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage for acute cholecystitis.

There is no consensus on the optimal timing of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) after percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) for patients with acute cholecystitis (AC). We retrospectively evaluated patients who underwent LC after PTGBD between 1 February 2016 and 1 February 2020. We divided patients into three groups according to the interval time between PTGBD and LC as follows: Group I (within 1 week), (Group II, 1 week to 1 month), and Group III (> 1 month) and analyzed patients' perioperative outcomes. We enrolled 100 patients in this study (Group I, n = 22; Group II, n = 30; Group III, n = 48). We found no significant difference between the groups regarding patients' baseline characteristics and no significant difference regarding operation time and estimated blood loss (p = 0.69, p = 0.26, respectively). The incidence of conversion to open cholecystectomy was similar in the three groups (p = 0.37), and we found no significant difference regarding postoperative complications (p = 0.987). Group I had shorter total hospital stays and medical costs (p = 0.005, p < 0.001, respectively) vs Group II and Group III. Early LC within 1 week after PTGBD is safe and effective, with comparable intraoperative outcomes, postoperative complications, and conversion rates to open cholecystectomy. Furthermore, early LC could decrease postoperative length of hospital stay and medical costs.