Timing of Cholecystectomy After Percutaneous Transhepatic Gallbladder Drainage for Acute Cholecystitis: a Nationwide Inpatient Database Study

Background: Optimal interval from percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) to cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis remains unclear.

Methods: We analyzed patients undergoing cholecystectomy following PTGBD for acute cholecystitis, using a national database. We performed restricted cubic spline (RCS) analyses to investigate the association of interval from PTGBD to cholecystectomy with outcomes (mortality/morbidity, blood transfusion, duration of anesthesia, and postoperative hospital stay).

Results: Among 9,256 patients, RCS analyses showed reverse J-shaped associations of the interval with mortality/morbidity and blood transfusion, and J-shaped associations of the interval with both duration of anesthesia and postoperative hospital stay. Each interval was compared with the bottom of the spline curve. Patients with intervals ≤6 days or ≥27 days had higher mortality/morbidity than those with a 10-day interval. Patients with intervals ≤8 days had higher proportions of blood transfusion than those with a 10-day interval. Patients with intervals ≥17 days had longer duration of anesthesia than those with a 5-day interval. Postoperative hospital stay was longer among those with intervals ≤10 days or ≥19 days than those with a 15-day interval.

Conclusions: Based on the mortality/morbidity data, the optimum time to perform cholecystectomy is between 7 and 26 days after PTGBD.