Postoperative Complications of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Acute Cholecystitis: A Comparison to the ACS-NSQIP Risk Calculator and the Tokyo Guidelines

We compared observed postoperative outcomes from laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed for acute cholecystitis (AC) to outcomes predicted by the ACS-NSQIP risk calculator.We also noted and compared any differences in observed outcomes across the different Tokyo Guidelines (TG) levels of AC severity.We hypothesized that ACS-NSQIP would accurately predict complications and length of stay (LOS) and that increased TG severity levels would correlate with more complications, increased conversion to open surgery, and longer LOS. A review of all patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis over eighteen months was performed. ACS-NSQIP predicted a complication rate of 4.6% (11% found) and LOS of 0.73 days (2.5 found), p < 0.05. Increased TG severity had LOS of 1.89, 2.75, and 5.33, respectively, p < 0.05. The complication numbers and conversion to open cholecystectomy were insignificant between the TG classes. ACS-NSQIP did not accurately predict complications or LOS. TG classifications did not show a significant difference in complications or conversion to open surgery, but positively correlated with LOS. ACS-NSQIP may not accurately predict patient outcomes and the TG, originally created with the purpose of differentiating levels of inflammation and severity, may only be useful for predicting LOS.