Sippey et al identified risk factors that can help to identify a patient with acute cholecystitis who may require conversion to an open procedure. The authors are from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.
Patient selection: acute cholecystitis schedule for laparoscopic cholecystectomy
Outcome: conversion to an open (CTO) procedure
Clinical risk factors from multivariate analysis:
(1) older age (60.7 +/- 16.2 vs 51.6 +/- 18.0)
(2) male gender
(3) obesity
Laboratory findings from multivariate analysis:
(1) elevated preoperative serum alkaline phosphatase
(2) elevated preoperative white blood cell count
(3) decreased preoperative serum albumin
Additional clinical factors (unadjusted):
(1) bleeding disorder
(2) diabetes
(3) comorbid conditions (vascular, cardiac, renal, pulmonary, neurologic, hepatic)
