Needlescopic versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy. A prospective study of 60 patients

To test the hypothesis that needlescopic cholecystectomies (NC) offer superior outcomes in comparison to common laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LC). Sixty consecutive patients with gallbladder disease undergoing either LC or NC were evaluated with respect to differences in operative time, frequency of per-operative incidents, post-operative pain, late postoperative symptoms, length of scars and level of postoperative satisfaction. Mean operative time was similar in both groups. Most of the patients, irrespective of the technique, informed mild postoperative pain. NC patients had lower levels of pain on the 7th postoperative day (PO7) (p