Title
Factors influencing the difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy: A review
Authors
Atul Kumar, Bhavesh Khandelwal, Shivani Sinha* & Neelam R Charles
Affiliation
Department of Surgery, Dr. Laxmi Narayan Pandey Government Medical College, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author
Atul Kumar - E-mail: dratul1705@gmail.com
Bhavesh Khandelwal - E-mail: drbhavesh7790@gmail.com
Shivani Sinha - E-mail: drshivani1705@gmail.com
Neelam R Charles - E-mail: neelamcharles@rediffmail.com
Article Type
Review
Date
Received February 1, 2026; Revised February 28, 2026; Accepted February 28, 2026, Published February 28, 2026
Abstract
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the preferred treatment for symptomatic cholelithiasis, yet conversion to open surgery occurs in a notable proportion of cases due to factors such as dense adhesions, unclear anatomy or intraoperative complications. Therefore, it is of interest to identify preoperative predictors of difficult LC to guide surgical planning. Across the included studies, factors consistently associated with conversion included gallbladder wall thickness greater than 4-5 mm, contracted gallbladder, acute cholecystitis, age over 60 years and male gender. Other factors such as diabetes mellitus and white blood cell count were not reliably predictive. Thus, we show the importance of structured preoperative assessment and support the use of predictive scoring systems to estimate surgical difficulty, optimize operative planning and improve patient outcomes.
Keywords
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, conversion, risk factors, gallbladder wall thickness, scoring systems
Citation
Kumar et al. Bioinformation 22(2): 722-725 (2026)
Edited by
Ritik Kashwani
ISSN
0973-2063
Publisher
License
This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
