Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 960 elderly patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the operative time, hospital stay, conversion rate, morbidity and mortality in elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy for gallbladder disease. METHODS We conducted a descriptive, retrospective study with the chats of 960 patients, aged 60 and 97 years in the period from January 1993 to August 2009. RESULTS Operative time ranged from nine to 180 minutes. The length of stay ranged from 24 to 120 hours. Conversion occurred in 28 patients (2.92%), of whom 67.9% were women and 28.6% men, a minilaparotomy having been performed in 11 cases (39.3%) and in 17 (60.7%) the conventional open route. The perioperative complications were two ruptures of the gallbladder, one failure in the pneumoperitoneum and one in clipping the cystic duct. Postoperative complications were five umbilical incisional hernias. Systemic complications were: nine arrhythmias, one postoperative jaundice, one acute myocardial infarction and one mesenteric infarction. Mortality occurred in three patients (0.3%), one due to perioperative myocardial infarction, one due to sepsis and one because of mesenteric infarction. CONCLUSION Elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy had low hospital stay and low morbimortality. The operative time and hospital stay were short, demonstrating that laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and effective in the elderly.