Does the Scoring System Affect the Surgery Timing in Acute Calculous Cholecystitis?

Acute cholecystitis refers to acute inflammation of the gallbladder, and why it is often gallstones. Gallstones are seen in western society with about 10% frequency, while 80% of them are asymptomatic. Acute cholecystitis accounts for 1-3% of those with symptomatic gallstones.

Acute cholecystitis is a table characterized by right upper quadrant pain (in the inflammatory pain pattern and continuous), defensiveness in the right upper quadrant (murphy manifestation is positive or not), and an increase in inflammatory response parameters (such as fever, white blood cell, and CRP elevation). Biliary scintigraphy, called the HIDA scan, is the gold standard method in diagnosis. However, due to the difficulty and cost of application, ultrasonography is used in the routine application in diagnosis. It is valuable that gallstones and gallbladder walls are thicker than 4 mm in ultrasonography. However, pericholecystic fluid is a more valuable finding and is rare.

In the treatment of acute cholecystitis, the patient's hospitalization, limiting oral food intake, IV hydration, NSAID, and antibiotic treatment is the main conservative approaches. While these patients were admitted to the hospital in the first 72 hours from the onset of symptoms, early cholecystectomy is recommended. If they arrive later, interval cholecystectomy is recommended after 6-8 weeks. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is recommended for all operations. However, the choice of surgical treatment is determined by the surgeon, according to the patient. More precise and objective criteria are needed to contribute to this choice.

In a study comparing early cholecystectomy and delayed cholecystectomy, intraoperative and postoperative complications were more common in early cholecystectomy than interval cholecystectomy. Still, early cholecystectomy had better results in terms of cost and hospital stay. There are many studies in the literature comparing early and late cholecystectomy. In these studies, the selection criteria of patients are different in all of them.

Finally, it was emphasized that a retrospective scoring study conducted in Germany could be successful in patient selection.