Background
Gallstones are a very common disease affecting up to 15% of the general population in the US and Europe, with a higher prevalence in women. About 50 to 70% of patients with gallstones are asymptomatic and nearly 1 in 10 individuals with asymptomatic gallstones may be expected to develop symptoms or complications that require treatment within five years.
Since its first introduction in the late 1980s, laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been extensively adopted as the treatment of choice in patients with gallstones and other less frequent benign gallbladder diseases due to its undeniable advantages, such as the reduction of postoperative pain, faster recovery, and improved cosmesis. Nevertheless, the undeniable advantages related to this procedure compared to the traditional open approach have resulted in a broadening of indications in performing such an operation, sometimes resulting in expensive and unnecessary overtreatment.
The aim of this work was to retrospectively analyze all patients who underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in our department in order to find the percentage of patients whose surgical treatment may be explained with the general trend of increase in laparoscopy utilization, and to speculate about the possible causes.