EGS SO15 - The “Not” Cholecystectomy: Barriers to Early Cholecystectomy in a District General Hospital Free

The benefit of early or “hot” cholecystectomy in acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis is now widely recognised and recommended by NICE guidelines. However, in reality, surgery within the index admission is not always universally practised. We aim to report our experience of barriers to performing emergency cholecystectomy in the context of a district general London hospital.

Data from patients admitted within a 1 month period with acute calculous cholecystitis, gallstone pancreatitis or recurrent biliary colic were retrospectively collected. Data points included patient demographics, reasons for not having emergency surgery and time to subsequent elective surgery. Any patients who underwent early emergency cholecystectomy were excluded from analysis.

Twenty six (76.5%) out of 34 admissions did not receive emergency cholecystectomy. Eight (30.8%) were male and mean age was 69. Most common presentation was acute calculous cholecystitis (13, 50%). Reasons for not having surgery included frailty (7, 26.9%), waitlisted for endoscopic investigation (5, 19.2%), lack of emergency theatre capacity (4, 15.4%), unknown (3, 11.5%), severe disease (2, 7.7%), patient refusal (3, 11.5%) and acute medical contraindication (2, 7.7%). Four (15.4%) patients had repeat acute admission. To date, 4 patients subsequently underwent elective cholecystectomy with one procedure within 3 months.

Early cholecystectomy rates in district general hospitals can be affected by availability of local resources. By identifying the key factors for not proceeding to surgery, we can increase efforts to improve access to emergency theatre space, high-risk anaesthetic input and acute endoscopy services.