A Retrospective Study Comparing Radiological to Histopathological Diagnosis After Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Suspected Cholecystitis

Introduction Acute calculus cholecystitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal pain in patients presenting to the emergency department, representing a third of all surgical emergency hospital admissions. Laparoscopic surgery is typically performed within 24 to 48 hours of hospital admission. Due to similarities in presentation, it is often difficult to differentiate between biliary colic and acute cholecystitis. Currently, it is not clear how the clinical and radiological diagnosis of acute calculus cholecystitis correlates with the histopathological diagnosis. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 350 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy in our community hospital for acute calculus cholecystitis. The aim was to compare pre-operative radiological diagnoses of acute calculous cholecystitis to post-operative histopathological diagnosis. Four radiographic modalities were used for diagnosis of acute calculous cholecystitis: ultrasound, computerized tomography, MRI, and hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HIDA scan). A correlation was found between both the clinical pain of biliary origin and radiological diagnosis with subsequent histopathological diagnosis after laparoscopic surgery. Results When the four commonly used imaging modalities were compared, HIDA scan had the highest sensitivity and ultrasound had the highest specificity in successfully diagnosing acute calculus cholecystitis that had been confirmed with histopathological analysis. Conclusion No absolute correlation was found between any of the imaging modalities when compared to the pathological diagnosis. The ultrasound had maximum specificity, while the HIDA scan had maximum sensitivity when radiological imaging was compared to histopathology.