Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is commonly performed, and several factors increase the

Readmissions and complications following cholecystectomy are common and associated with patient and disease characteristics.

BackgroundAcute cholecystitis is a life-threatening emergency in elderly patients. This population-based cohort study aimed to evaluate the commonly used management strategies for elderly patients with acute cholecystitis as well as resulting mortality and re-admission rates.MethodsData from all consecutive elderly patients (≥ 80 years) admitted with acute cholecystitis in England from 1997 to 2012 were captured from the Hospital Episode Statistics database. Influence of management strategies upon mortality was analyzed with adjustment for patient demographics and treatment year.Results47,500 elderly patients were admitted as an emergency with acute cholecystitis. On the index emergency admission the majority of patients (n = 42,620, 89.7%) received conservative treatment, 3539 (7.5%) had cholecystectomy, and 1341 (2.8%) underwent cholecystostomy. In the short term, 30-day mortality was increased in the emergency cholecystectomy group (11.6%) compared to those managed conservatively (9.9%) (p < 0.001). This was offset by the long-term benefits of cholecystectomy with a reduced 1-year mortality [20.8 vs. 27.1% for those managed conservatively (p < 0.001)]. Management with percutaneous cholecystostomy had increased 30-day and 1-year mortality (13.4 and 35.0%, respectively). The annual proportion of cholecystectomies performed laparoscopically increased from 27% in 2006 to 59% in 2012. Within the cholecystectomy group, laparoscopic approach was an independent predictor of reduced 30-day mortality (OR 0.16, 95% CI 0.10–0.25). Following conservative management, there were 16,088 admissions with further cholecystitis. Only 11% of patients initially managed conservatively or with cholecystostomy received subsequent cholecystectomy.ConclusionAcute cholecystitis is associated with significant mortality in elderly patients. Potential benefits of emergency cholecystectomy in selected elderly patients include reduced rate of readmissions and 1-year mortality. Laparoscopic approach for emergency cholecystectomy was associated with an 84% relative risk reduction in 30-day mortality compared to open surgery.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00464-018-6092-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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