Modification of laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy

Excerpt

This is in response to an article by Horiuchi et al. [1]. The authors have done a remarkable job in defining the role of laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy in the management of difficult cases of acute cholecystitis. They described that in cases where significant difficulty in dissecting the gallbladder from the liver bed was encountered, the gallbladder’s posterior wall was left attached to the liver and the mucosa was ablated using cautery. They also mentioned the inability to biopsy the gallbladder as a drawback to the procedure. There is a small but definite risk of gallbladder cancer being found unexpectedly in 0.2-0.8% of patients who undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy [2, 3]. …