Acute calculous cholecystitis: a real-life management study in a tertiary teaching hospital

Aim: to describe the management of acute calculous cholecystitis in a tertiary teaching hospital and the outcomes obtained. Material and methods: a retrospective single tertiary center cohort study. Results: medical records of 487 patients were analyzed.The mean follow-up was 44.5 +/- 17.0 months.Treatment alternatives were cholecystectomy (64.3%), conservative treatment (23.0%), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (17.4%), percutaneous cholecystostomy (10.7%) and endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage (0.8%). Most cholecystectomies were delayed (88.8%). Recurrences occurred in 38.2% of patients. Although cholecystectomy was the therapeutic approach with the lowest recurrence rate once performed, 44.6% of patients that underwent delayed surgery had preoperative recurrences. Conclusions: delayed cholecystectomy is still commonly performed, even though it is related with a high frequency of pre-surgical recurrences.