Percutaneous Cholecystostomy for Severe Acute Cholecystitis: A Useful Procedure in High-Risk Patients for Surgery.

Background: Acute cholecystitis has the potential to cause sepsis and death, particularly in patients with poor physiological reserve. The gold standard treatment of acute cholecystitis (cholecystectomy) is often not safe in high-risk patients and recourse is made to percutaneous cholecystostomy as either definite treatment or temporizing measure. The aim of this study is to evaluate early and late outcomes following percutaneous cholecystostomy in patients with acute cholecystitis treated at our institution.

Methods: All patients who underwent percutaneous cholecystostomy for acute cholecystitis (excluding patients with malignancy) between January 2005 and September 2014 were included in the study.

Results: A total of 53 patients (22 female, median age, 74 years; range, 27-95 years) underwent percutaneous cholecystostomy during the study period. In total, 12 patients (22.6%) had acalculous cholecystitis. The main indications for percutaneous cholecystostomy were significant co-morbidities (n = 28, 52.8%) and patients too unstable for surgery (n = 21, 39.6%). The median time to percutaneous cholecystostomy from diagnosis of acute cholecystitis was 3.6 days (range, 0-45 days). The median length of hospital stay was 27 (range, 4-87) days. The overall 90-day mortality was 9.3% with two further deaths at 12-month follow up. The mortality was significantly higher in patients with American Society of Anesthesiology grade 4-5 (18% vs 0% in American Society of Anesthesiology grade 2-3, p = 0.026) and in patients with acalculous cholecystitis (25% vs 4.5%, p = 0.035). The overall readmission rate was 18%. A total of 24 (45.2%) patients had surgery: laparoscopic cholecystectomy, n = 11; laparoscopic converted to open, n = 5; open total cholecystectomy, n = 5; open cholecystectomy, n = 1; laparotomy and washout, n = 1; laparotomy partial cholecystectomy and closure of perforated small intestine and gastrostomy, n = 1.

Conclusion: Percutaneous cholecystostomy is a useful temporary or permanent procedure in patients with acute cholecystitis of both calculous and acalculous origin, who are unfit for surgery.