Impact of abdominal drainage on outcomes after uncomplicated laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a comparative clinical study

Abstract

Background. The most common laparoscopic procedure worldwide is laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), which has become the gold standard in the treatment of symptomatic calculous and acalculous cholecystitis. However, there is still considerable disagreement about the effectiveness of regular drainage after LC in reducing postoperative morbidity. Materials and methods. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 randomly selected patients. Out of 200, 100 were chosen with a drain (group A) and 100 with no drain (group B). The same antibiotics were given to both groups postoperatively. Every patient has undergone LC using the standard four-port method. The post-surgical complications were noted and compared. Results. The results of this study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between group A and B in terms of length of hospital stay (P = 0.000), with group A length of stay being more extended. Nausea and vomiting were slightly more often in group A than in group B (P = 0.482, 0.153). Regarding abdominal pain, the distribution is as follows: 48.8 % in group A and 51.2 % in group B. For the moderate level of discomfort, it was recorded in 44.4 % of patients in group B and in 55.6 % of group A (P = 0.462). The current study also showed that using a drain significantly affected shoulder symptoms, which were more frequent in group B (P = 0.000). Regarding port site infection, there was no significant difference between two groups (P = 0.234). Finally, no patients developed deep vein thrombosis or postoperative ileus. Conclusions. In this study, there is no practical benefit from routine subhepatic drain insertion during laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Keywords

• cholecystectomy
• drain
• cholecystitis
• laparoscopy