Perform Cholecystectomy During Initial Hospitalization for Gallstone Pancreatitis

Despite recommendations in guidelines and surgical textbooks advocating prompt (during the index hospital admission) cholecystectomy for mild gallstone pancreatitis, most patients in the U.S. undergo cholecystectomy several weeks after discharge.

To assess the effect of cholecystectomy timing in patients with mild gallstone pancreatitis, researchers randomized 266 patients in 23 Dutch hospitals to undergo cholecystectomy during the same hospital admission or electively several weeks later (interval cholecystectomy). Cholecystectomy was performed at a median of 1 day after randomization in the same-admission group and 27 days after randomization in the interval group. The combined endpoint of gallstone-related complications (recurrent pancrea…