The role of preoperative ultrasound in predicting conversion from laparoscopic cholecystectomy to open surgery in acute cholecystitis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of pre-operative ultrasound findings for conversion from laparoscopic cholecystectomy to open surgery in patients with acute cholecystitis and to evaluate the effects of pre-operative ultrasound findings on operation time and length of stay. METHODS: The study included 80 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis between January 1 and June 30, 2023. The relationship between gallbladder wall thickness and the presence of pericholecystic fluid on pre-operative ultrasonography and the duration of surgery, conversion to open surgery, and hospitalization was evaluated. RESULTS: The patient group undergoing open surgery exhibited a statistically significant increase in both the median gallbladder wall thickness (P<0.001) and the frequency of pericholecystic fluid on pre-operative ultrasound (P=0.012). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the discriminative power of gallbladder wall thickness for predicting the requirement to convert from laparoscopic surgery to open surgery. The area under the curve value was found to be 0.907, indicating a strong discriminative power. Based on the ROC curve, a gallbladder wall thickness of ≥5.75 millimeters showed a sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 84.9% in predicting the requirement for open surgery. CONCLUSION: Our study highlights the significance of two factors in predicting the conversion from laparoscopic cholecystectomy to open surgery in patients with acute cholecystitis. The presence of pericholecystic fluid and a gallbladder wall thickness of 5.75 mm or greater are indicators that the laparoscopic procedure may be more challenging in such cases. These results can aid surgeons in making informed decisions and planning the surgical approach accordingly for better patient outcomes.