Comparison of Double-Incision Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy and Needlescopic Cholecystectomy

Purpose: Recently, reduced port surgery is becoming popular for laparoscopic surgery. “Reduced” means reducing the size or number of ports, but it is controversial as to which procedure is better. We evaluated double-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy (DILC) and needlescopic cholecystectomy (NC) as reducing number or size of ports, respectively. Method: Patient records for 51 patients undergoing DILC and 22 patients undergoing NC were retrospectively evaluated. The patient and operation related variables of DILC and NC were compared by age, gender, body mass index (BMI), operative time, blood loss, length of postoperative hospital stay, numerical rating scale (NRS) pain score, and frequency to administer NSAIDs postoperatively for three days. Results: The operative times of both groups were similar (DILC 106 ± 31 min, NC 103 ± 35 min). Blood loss did not show any difference and each of them was small in amount (DILC 14 ± 29 ml, NC 22 ± 31 ml). Length of postoperative hospital stay of DILC (3.2 ± 0.4 days) was significantly shorter than that of NC (3.5 ± 0.7 days). Regarding postoperative pain, frequency to administer NSAIDs and pain score for three days postoperatively showed no significant difference. Conclusion: It is thought that DILC and NC have the same operative difficulty. As far as early postoperative pain was concerned, both procedures did not have any difference.