Early cholecystectomy (< 72h) is associated with lower rate of complications and bile duct injury: a study of 109,862 cholecystectomies in the state of New York.

Abstract

The timing of cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis has been debated with most studies favoring early cholecystectomy (< 72h of onset). However, most reported studies are from single institution studies with only a few population-based studies. The purpose of this study is to compare clinical outcomes of patients undergoing cholecystectomy within 72h of emergency department (ED) presentation to patients undergoing cholecystectomy following 72h in a large statewide database. The New York SPARCS administrative database was used to identify all adult patients presenting to the ED with a diagnosis of acute cholecystitis from 2005 to 2016. Patients aged < 18, missing data, or other biliary diagnoses were excluded from the analysis. Early cholecystectomy was defined as within 72h of presentation to the emergency department. Early vs late groups were compared in terms of overall complications, bile duct injury (BDI), hospital length of stay (LOS), 30-days ED visits and readmissions. The linear trends of yearly early/late cholecystectomies were examined using a log-linear Poisson regression models. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to compare complications, BDI, and 30-day readmission/ED visits after controlling for confounding factors. Multivariable generalized linear regression for a negative binomial distributed count data was used to compare LOS. Following the application of the inclusion/exclusion criteria, there were 109,862 patients who presented to an ED with the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis. The majority of patients underwent early cholecystectomy (n = 93,761, 85.3%), whereas only 16,101 patients underwent late cholecystectomy (14.7%). There was an increasing trend of early cholecystectomy from 2005 (81.1%) to 2016 (87.8%). On multivariable regression, patients with early cholecystectomy were less likely to have complications (OR 0.542, 95% CI 0.518-0.566), had shorter LOS (ratio 0.461, 95% CI 0.458-0.465), were less likely to have 30-day readmission (OR 0.871, 95% CI 0.816-0.928), 30-day ED visits (OR 0.909, 95% CI 0.862-0.959), and bile duct injury (OR 0.654, 95% CI 0.444-0.962) compared to late cholecystectomy patients. Early cholecystectomy (< 72h) is associated with fewer complications, specifically BDI, shorter LOS, and fewer 30-day readmissions and ED visits. For patients presenting to the ED for acute cholecystitis, early cholecystectomy should be preferred.