Prospective validation of a preoperative scoring system for difficult laparoscopy cholecystectomy

Difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is defined by its surgical outcomes, including operative time, conversion to open surgery, bile duct and/or vascular injury. Difficult LC can be graded based on intraoperative findings. The main objective of this study is to apply and validate the reliability of their proposed risk score to predict the operative difficulty of an LC, based on their own validated intraoperative scale. Single-center prospective cohort study from 01/2020–12-2023. 367 patients > 18 years who underwent LC were included. The preoperative risk scale and intraoperative grading system were registered. Surgical outcomes were determined. Predictive accuracy was evaluated by the Receiver Operator Characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive values, and Youden’s Index (J). Patients’ mean age was 44.1 ± 15.3 years. According to the risk score, 39.5% LC were “low” risk difficulty, 49.3% were “medium” risk, and 11.2% were “high” risk difficult LC. Based on the intraoperative grading system, 31.9% were difficult LC (Nassar grades 3–4) and 68.1% were easy LC (Nassar grades 1–2). There was a statistically significant correlation (0.428, p < 0.05) between the preoperative risk score and the intraoperative grading system. The AUC for the preoperative risk score scale and intraoperative difficult LC was 0.735 (95% CI 0.687–0.779) (J: 0.34). A preoperative risk score > 1.5 had an 83.7% sensitivity and a 50.8% specificity for intraoperative difficult LC. A predictive preoperative score for difficult LC and a routine collection of the intraoperative difficulty should be implemented to improve surgical outcomes and surgical planning.