A survey of surgical treatment of gallstone disease and the diffusion of laparoscopic surgery in Sweden 1992–93

Objective:

To study the diffusion of laparoscopic biliary surgery in Sweden, 1992–93.

Design:

A prospective survey of all biliary surgery for gallstone disease recorded for 8 weeks in 1992 and the same period in 1993.

Setting:

All surgical departments in Sweden.

Subjects:

A consecutive series of 1938 patients in 1992 and 1748 patients in 1993.

Main outcome measures:

The changing indications, diffusion, morbidity, mortality, postoperative and hospital stay after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in Sweden in 1992 compared with 1993.

Results:

Despite the spread of LC, the indications did not change between 1992 and 1993 (p = 0.31). The total number of cholecystectomies decreased from 1938 in 1992 to 1748 in 1993. The overall percentage of laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LCs) increased from 74.7% to 81.2% (p < 0.001) between 1992 and 1993.

Postoperative morbidity and mortality after LC did not differ between 1992 and 1993, but the total morbidity was 9.0% in 1992 and 7.0% in 1993 (p = 0.02). Mortality for all cholecystectomies did not change over the periods, being 0.6% in 1992 and 0.2% in 1993 (p = 0.07). The numbers of LCs done in any hospital were divided in two groups, 20 or fewer and 21–80. In the smaller group, the postoperative morbidity was 7.1% and in the larger group it was 7.0%, (p = 0.9). The postoperative mortality was 0.1% in both groups.

The postoperative and total hospital stays of all cholecystectomies decreased from 3.4 days in 1992 to 2.9 days in 1993 (p = 0.001) and from 5.0 in 1992 to 4.4 days in 1993 (p < 0.001), respectively. The postoperative and total hospital stays of LCs decreased from 2.0 in 1992 to 1.8 days in 1993 (p = 0.009) and from 3.3 in 1992 to 2.9 days in 1993 (p = 0.007), respectively.

Conclusion:

Despite the introduction and diffusion of the new technology, LC, the indications for surgery did not change and the number of cholecystectomies did not increase from 1992 to 1993. The morbidity and mortality of LC and the mortality of all cholecystectomies were unchanged between 1992 and 1993, but the morbidity for all cholecystectomies decreased. The number of LC or all cholecystectomies done in any particular hospital were not related to morbidity or to mortality. Copyright © 1998 Taylor and Francis Ltd.