Surgical removal of the gallbladder
Cholecystectomy is the surgical removal of the gallbladder. Cholecystectomy is a common treatment of symptomatic gallstones and other gallbladder conditions. In 2011, cholecystectomy was the eighth most common operating room procedure performed in hospitals in the United States. Cholecystectomy can be performed either laparoscopically, or via an open surgical technique.
The surgery is usually successful in relieving symptoms, but up to 10 percent of people may continue to experience similar symptoms after cholecystectomy, a condition called postcholecystectomy syndrome. Complications of cholecystectomy include bile duct injury, wound infection, bleeding, vasculobiliary injury, retained gallstones, liver abscess formation and stenosis (narrowing) of the bile duct.
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Medical use.
Pain and complications caused by gallstones are the most common reasons for removal of the gallbladder. The gallbladder can also be removed in order to treat biliary dyskinesia or gallbladder cancer.
Gallstones are very common but 50–80% of people with gallstones are asymptomatic and do not need surgery; their stones are noticed incidentally on imaging tests of the abdomen (such as ultrasound or CT) done for some other reason. The traditional risk factors for gallstones are the four “F's: female, fat, forty, and fertile. Of the more than 20 million people in the US with gallstones, only about 30% will eventually require cholecystectomy to relieve symptoms (pain) or treat complications.
Biliary colic.
Biliary colic, or pain caused by gallstones, occurs when a gallstone temporarily blocks the bile duct that drains the gallbladder. Typically, pain from biliary colic is felt in the right upper part of the abdomen, is moderate to severe, and goes away on its own after a few hours when the stone dislodges. Biliary colic usually occurs after meals when the gallbladder contracts to push bile out into the digestive tract. After a first attack of biliary colic, more than 90% of people will have a repeat attack in the next 10 years. Repeated attacks of biliary colic are the most common reason for removing the gallbladder, and lead to about 300,000 cholecystectomies in the US each year.
Acute cholecystitis.
Cholecystitis, or inflammation of the gallbladder caused by interruption in the normal flow of bile, is another reason for cholecystectomy. It is the most common complication of gallstones; 90–95% of acute cholecystitis is caused by gallstones blocking drainage of the gallbladder. If the blockage is incomplete and the stone passes quickly, the person experiences biliary colic. If the gallbladder is completely blocked and remains so for a prolonged period, the person develops acute cholecystitis.
Pain in cholecystitis is similar to that of biliary colic, but lasts longer than six hours and occurs together with signs of infection such as fever, chills, or an elevated white blood cell count. People with cholecystitis will also usually have a positive Murphy sign on physical exam – meaning that when a doctor asks the patient to take a deep breath and then pushes down on the upper right side of their abdomen, the patient stops their inhalation due to pain from the pressure on their inflamed gallbladder.
Five to ten percent of acute cholecystitis occurs in people without gallstones, and for this reason, is called "acalculous" cholecystitis. It usually develops in people who have abnormal bile drainage secondary to a serious illness, such as people with multi-organ failure, serious trauma, recent major surgery, or following a long stay in the intensive care unit.
People with repeat episodes of acute cholecystitis can develop chronic cholecystitis from changes in the normal anatomy of the gallbladder. This can also be an indication for cholecystectomy if the person has ongoing pain.
Cholangitis and gallstone pancreatitis.
Cholangitis and gallstone pancreatitis are rarer and more serious complications from gallstone disease. Both can occur if gallstones leave the gallbladder, pass through the cystic duct, and get stuck in the common bile duct. The common bile duct drains the liver and pancreas, and a blockage there can lead to inflammation and infection in both the pancreas and biliary system. While cholecystectomy is not usually the immediate treatment choice for either of these conditions, it is often recommended to prevent repeat episodes from additional gallstones getting stuck.
Gallbladder cancer.
Gallbladder cancer (also called carcinoma of the gallbladder) is a rare indication for cholecystectomy. In cases where cancer is suspected, the open technique for cholecystectomy is usually performed.
Liver transplantation.
In living donor liver transplantation between adults, a cholecystectomy is performed in the donor because the gallbladder interferes with removal of the right (lateral) lobe of the liver and to prevent the formation of gallstones in the recipient. The gallbladder is not removed in pediatric transplantations as the left lobe of the liver is used instead.
Contraindications.
There are no specific contraindications for cholecystectomy, and in general it is considered a low-risk surgery. However, anyone who cannot tolerate surgery under general anesthesia should not undergo cholecystectomy. People can be split into high and low risk groups using a tool such as the ASA physical status classification system. In this system, people who are ASA categories III, IV, and V are considered high risk for cholecystectomy. Typically this includes very elderly people and people with co-existing illness, such as end-stage liver disease with portal hypertension and whose blood does not clot properly. Alternatives to surgery are briefly mentioned below.
Risks.
All surgery carries risk of serious complications including damage to nearby structures, bleeding, infection, or even death. The operative death rate in cholecystectomy is about 0.1% in people under age 50 and about 0.5% in people over age 50. The greatest risk of death comes from co-existing illness like cardiac or pulmonary disease.
Biliary injury.
A serious complication of cholecystectomy is biliary injury, or damage to the bile ducts. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has a higher risk of bile duct injury than the open approach, with injury to bile ducts occurring in 0.3% to 0.5% of laparoscopic cases and 0.1% to 0.2% of open cases. In laparoscopic cholecystectomy, approximately 25–30% of biliary injuries are identified during the operation; the rest become apparent in the early post-operative period.
Damage to the bile ducts is very serious because it causes leakage of bile into the abdomen. Signs and symptoms of a bile leak include abdominal pain, tenderness, fever and signs of sepsis several days following surgery, or through laboratory studies as rising total bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase. Complications from a bile leak can follow a person for years and can lead to death. Bile leak should always be considered in any patient who is not recovering as expected after cholecystectomy. Most bile injuries require repair by a surgeon with special training in biliary reconstruction. If biliary injuries are properly treated and repaired, more than 90% of patients can have a long-term successful recovery.
Injury of the bile ducts can be prevented and treated by routinely using X-ray investigation of the bile ducts (intraoperative cholangiography (IOC)). This method was assessed by the Swedish SBU and routine use deemed to decrease risk of injury and morbidity following unaddressed injury while only increasing cancer rates due to radiation exposure by a lesser fraction.
Other complications.
A review of safety data in laparoscopic cholecystectomy found the following complications to be most common:
The same study found the prevalence of bowel injury, sepsis, pancreatitis, and deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism to be around 0.15% each.
Leakage from the stump of the cystic duct is a complication that is more common with the laparoscopic approach than the open approach but is still rare, occurring in less than 1% of procedures; it is treated by drainage followed by insertion of a bile duct stent.
Another complication singular to the laparoscopic procedure is the phenomenon of the "spilled gallstone" which complicates 0.08–0.3% of cases. Here a stone escapes the resected gallbladder into the abdomen where it can become a focus for infection if it is not identified and removed. Some reports exist of spilled stones lying unnoticed for up to 20 years before eventually causing an abscess to form.
Conversion to open cholecystectomy.
Experts agree that many biliary injuries in laparoscopic cases are caused by difficulties seeing and identifying the anatomy clearly. If the surgeon has problems identifying anatomical structures, they might need to convert from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy.
Peroperative Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreaticography (ERCP)/ Laparo-endoscopic rendezvous (LERV) technique
CBDS are found in 10–15% of patients during cholecystectomy when intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) is routinely performed.
There are several strategies to manage choledocholithiasis but the optimal method as well as the timing of treatment is still under debate.
In recent years the LERV technique, in which access to the common bile duct by ERCP is facilitated by an antegrade guidewire, which is intraoperatively introduced during fluoroscopy and is advanced through the cystic duct to the duodenum, has been established as an alternative to treat common bile duct stones discovered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This technique was first described in 1993 by Deslandres et al.
and has, in several studies, been shown to have a high rate of CBD stones clearance and a reduced number of complications, particularly post-ERCP pancreatitis, in comparison with conventional ERCP.
This is probably due to the facilitated access to the common bile duct with a lesser degree of manipulation and trauma to the papilla Vateri. In a study by Swahn et al. the rendezvous method was shown to reduce the risk of PEP from 3.6 to 2.2% compared with conventional biliary cannulation.
The success rate of passing the transcystic guidewire into the duodenum has been reported to be over 80%.
Procedure.
Pre-operative preparation.
Before surgery, a complete blood count and liver function tests are usually obtained. Prophylactic treatment is given to prevent deep vein thrombosis. Use of prophylactic antibiotics is controversial; however, a dose may be given prior to surgery to prevent infection in certain people at high risk. Gas may be removed from the stomach with an OG or NG tube. A Foley catheter may be used to empty the patient's bladder.
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy uses several (usually 4) small incisions in the abdomen to allow the insertion of operating ports, small cylindrical tubes approximately 5 to 10 mm in diameter, through which surgical instruments are placed into the abdominal cavity. The laparoscope, an instrument with a video camera and light source at the end, illuminates the abdominal cavity and sends a magnified image from inside the abdomen to a video screen, giving the surgeon a clear view of the organs and tissues. The cystic duct and cystic artery are identified and dissected, then ligated with clips and cut in order to remove the gallbladder. The gallbladder is then removed through one of the ports.
As of 2008, 90% of cholecystectomies in the United States were done laparoscopically. Laparoscopic surgery is thought to have fewer complications, shorter hospital stay, and quicker recovery than open cholecystectomy.
Single incision.
Single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) or laparoendoscopic single site surgery (LESS) is a technique in which a single incision is made through the navel, instead of the 3-4 four small different incisions used in standard laparoscopy. There appears to be a cosmetic benefit over conventional four-hole laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and no advantage in postoperative pain and hospital stay compared with standard laparoscopic procedures. There is no scientific consensus regarding risk for bile duct injury with SILS versus traditional laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
Natural orifice transluminal.
Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is an experimental technique where the laparoscope is inserted through natural orifices and internal incisions, rather than skin incisions, to access to the abdominal cavity. This offers the potential to eliminate visible scars. Since 2007, cholecystectomy by NOTES has been performed anecdotally via transgastric and transvaginal routes. As of 2009 the risk of gastrointestinal leak, difficulty visualizing the abdominal cavity and other technical limitations limited further adoption of NOTES for cholecystectomy.
Open cholecystectomy.
In open cholecystectomy, a surgical incision of around 8 to 12 cm is made below the edge of the right rib cage and the gallbladder is removed through this large opening, typically using electrocautery. Open cholecystectomy is often done if difficulties arise during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, for example, the patient has unusual anatomy, the surgeon cannot see well enough through the camera, or the patient is found to have cancer. It can also be done if the patient has severe cholecystitis, emphysematous gallbladder, fistulization of gallbladder and gallstone ileus, cholangitis, cirrhosis or portal hypertension, and blood dyscrasias.
Biopsy.
After removal, the gallbladder should be sent for pathological examination to confirm the diagnosis and look for any incidental cancer. Incidental cancer of the gallbladder is found in approximately 1% of cholecystectomies. If cancer is present in the gallbladder, it is usually necessary to re-operate to