Single Incision Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Compared with Conventional Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, a Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been accepted and is nowadays considered as the gold standard treatment of gallstones disease. Conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy (CLC) was defined as three or four port surgery carried out with either French or American position. It reduced post-operative pain and shorten post-operative length of stay compared with open cholecystectomy in a great extent. Single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SILC) as a revolutionized surgery, the main reason for its widespread use being the following: less post-operative pain, faster recovery, better cosmetics and quicker return to full activities, all resulting in the improvement of post-operative quality of life. SILC uses the umbilicus as a natural orifice allowing easy access to peritoneal cavity, easy conversion to standard laparoscopy and its easy closure, has been widely introduced into the clinical practice for benign gallbladder diseases. SILC can easily hide the surgical scar inside the umbilicus, thus has better cosmetic effect. But the real clinical benefits for patients still remain a matter of debate. In the last 5 years, many studies on SILC have been published, trying to answer the question whether such a new approach is worthwhile or not and whether is safe and cost-effective.Based on the above controversy, we conduct a RCT comparing clinical and peri-operative outcomes, such as quality of life (QOL), of SILC and CLC with the intent to assess the actual indications of the single-incision approach.