ArticleLangenbeck's archives of surgery2021
Routine postoperative blood tests fail to reliably predict procedure-related complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
Article in Langenbeck's archives of surgery, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Are We Overtesting? Rethinking Routine Blood Work After Low-Risk Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Retrospective Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Value and relevance of routine postoperative blood sample analysis after general surgery-a single centre analysis of 1198 patients.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2025Article
- A German's Perspective on the Way toward Ambulatory Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Postoperative Questionnaire.Visceral medicine · 2025Article
- Management of Symptomatic Gallstone Disease during COVID-19 Lockdown in a High-Resource Setting: Is There a Need for Treatment Alterations?Visceral medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLaparoscopic cholecystectomy is a highly standardized surgical procedure with a low risk of complications. However, once complications develop, they can be life-threatening. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of blood tests on postoperative day one regarding their potential to predict postoperative complications
methodsA cohort study of 1706 consecutive cholecystectomies performed at a tertiary hospital and teaching facility over a 5-year period between 2014 and 2019.
resultsPatients that had open CCE or conversion CCE were excluded. One thousand five hundred eighty-six patients were included in the final analysis that received a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (CCE). One thousand five hundred twenty-three patients had blood tests on POD 1. Forty-one complications were detected including 14 bile leaks, 2 common bile duct injuries, 13 choledocholithiasis, 9 hematomas, and 2 active bleedings. Bilirubin was elevated in 351 patients on POD 1. A drop of more than 3 mg/dl of hemoglobin was reported in 39 patients. GPT was elevated 3 × above the upper limit in 102 patients. All three tests showed a low sensitivity and specificity in detecting postoperative complications.
conclusionsEarly postoperative blood tests alone show a low specificity in detecting postoperative complications after laparoscopic CCE. Their main benefit appears to be the negative predictive value, when they are normal. Routine blood testing appears to be unnecessary and should be based on the intraoperative diagnosis and postoperative clinical findings.
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