Gallbladder perforation: case series and systematic review.

Background: Gallbladder perforation is a serious complication of acute cholecystitis. Its management has evolved considerably since its classification by Niemeier in 1934. This review summarises the evidence surrounding the natural progression of this condition and potential problems with Niemeier's classification, and proposes a management algorithm for the more complex type II perforation.

Methods: Data from a retrospective case series and a systematic review were combined. The case series included all patients with gallbladder perforations from 2004 to 2008 at a British teaching hospital. The systematic review searched for gallbladder perforation using the MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library (2011 Issue 4) databases, as well as recent conference abstracts. The outcome data were analysed using SPSS version 15. No adjustments were made for multiple testing.

Results: 198 patients (including 19 patients from the present series) with a mean age of 62.1+/-9.7 years and male gender proportion of 55.4% (range 33.3-76.7%) were included. The most common gallbladder perforations were type II (median 46.2%, range 7.4-83.3%), followed by type I (median 40.6%, range 16.7-70.0%) and type III (median 10.1%, range 0-48.1%). Perforation was associated with cholelithiasis in 86.6% (range 78.9-90.6%) of patients, and the overall median mortality rate was 10.8% (range 0-12.5%). Male gender was weakly associated with mortality (p = 0.089) but age (p = 0.877) and cholelithiasis (p = 0.425) were not. Mortality did not vary significantly with perforation type.

Conclusions: Gallbladder perforation should be reported according to the original Neimeier's classification to avoid heterogeneity in data (e.g. varying rates of perforation types). The algorithm proposed in this study aims to guide the management of complex type II gallbladder perforations to minimise subsequent morbidity and mortality.