Comparison of 3-port with standard 4-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy: A clinical trial

Since the laparoscopic cholecystectomy was introduced first in 1990, the 4-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy was the gold standard. The 4-port (lateral) is used to hold gallbladder fundus and observe Calot's triangle. It is discussed that the 4-port technique is not required in many patients. Therefore, this study aimed to make a comparison between 3-port and 4-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy methods in the treatment of gallstone disease.

A double-blind clinical trial was performed on patients admitted to Imam Reza Hospital, Birjand, Iran. The patients with gallstone disease (n=60) were randomly assigned into the case (3-port) and control (4-port) groups using balanced block randomization and underwent 3- or 4-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Postoperative pain was measured by a visual analog scale four h after surgery. The amount of pain-killer, duration of surgery, as well as length of stay and scars were measured in this study. Data were analyzed statistically in SPSS software (version 18) through the Chi-square test and t-test. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The groups were compared in terms of demographic characteristics. There were 24 females (80%) and 6 males (20%) in the control group and 25 females (83.4%) and 5 males (16.7%) in the case group (P=0.739). Moreover, the mean ages of the control and case groups were 59.823±7.8 and 61.10±4.7, respectively, and there was no significant difference between the groups in this regard (P=0.348). Furthermore, length of operation (P=0.001) and analgesic consumption (P=0.001) in the 3-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy group were lower than those in the 4-port group; however, the hospital stay (P=0.896) was the same in both groups.

The 3-port laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a safe, reliable, and cost-effective method in patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy.