COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EARLY CHOLECYSTECTOMY VERSUS INTERVAL CHOLECYSTECTOMY IN ACUTE CHOLECYSTITIS

Abstract

Acute cholecystitis is a common occurrence among many gallbladder diseases and often requires a surgical procedure. The definitive treatment is laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The timing of the surgery is debatable. The purpose of this research is to determine the difference between early cholecystectomy and interval cholecystectomy. This quasi-experimental research was conducted in the Surgery Department of GMMMC/Civil Hospital in Sukkur. Ninety patients were selected using non-probability consecutive sample selection. Patients were divided into two equal groups of 45 using lottery sampling. One group underwent early cholecystectomy while the other group underwent interval cholecystectomy after 4-8 weeks. Demographics and several other variables were collected and compared between the groups. Statistical analysis of the data was conducted using SPSS version 25.0. An independent sample t-test was used for continuous variables and chi-square or fisher’s exact test was used for categorical variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Study results showed interval cholecystectomy was associated with a longer hospital stay. Both methods of cholecystectomy showed comparable postoperative outcomes. Early cholecystectomy was timely definitive management for acute cholecystitis patients and reduced the burden to health care. Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the preferred method of treatment when resources and surgical staff are available.