In order to find out the precipitating factors of the pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy, we performed a prospective study on 222 patients who had been treated with laparoscopic cholecystectomy at Wonkwang University hospital from May 1992
to
August 1993.
There were 94 males and 128 females, the male to female ratio was 1:1.36. The causes of operation, in order of frequency, were cholelithiasis (96%), acalculous cholecystitis (2%), gallbladder polyp (1%), and gallbladder cancer (1%). The mean
operative
time was 71±30 minutes which ranged from 30 minutes ot 150 minutes. The conversion to open cholecystectomy was done in 11 cases, because of difficult anatomy (n=5), severe adhesion (n=2), bile duct injury (n=2), and unsespected malignancy (n=2).
The duration of postoperative hospitalization varied from 3 to 8 days, and the mean postoperative hospital stay was 3.7±2.1 days.
We analysed the several factors which were sex, age, operative time and disease, to find out precipitating factors of the postoperative pain. Only the operative time difference showed a statistical significance (p<0.05).
The occurrence rate or pain was significantly lower among the patients whose operative time was less than 45 minutes.
We also compared the results according to additional operative procedures; closed drainage of subhepatic space (Group I, n=21) infusion of 500cc of Hartmann's solution in peritoneal cavity (Group II, n=101), and no ifusion and no drainage (Group
III,
n=100). There was no significant difference among the groups.
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