The optimal treatment of patients with mild and moderate acute cholecystitis: time for a revision of the Tokyo Guidelines.

Introduction: According to the Tokyo Guidelines, severity of acute cholecystitis is divided into three grades based on the degree of inflammation and the presence of organ dysfunction. These guidelines recommend grade I (mild) acute cholecystitis to be treated with early laparoscopic cholecystectomy and grade II (moderate) acute cholecystitis with delayed cholecystectomy. Yet, several studies have shown that, for acute cholecystitis in general, early cholecystectomy is superior to delayed cholecystectomy in terms of complication rate, duration of hospital stay and costs.