Background
There is a lack of evidence on the surgical approach for children and adolescents undergoing cholecystectomy. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to compare the safety and efficacy of minimally invasive cholecystectomy to open cholecystectomy in children and/or adolescents.
Main body
A search was conducted on MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane and Embase from inception to October 2018. We included comparative studies investigating outcomes following robotic-assisted, laparoscopic and/or open cholecystectomy in children and/or adolescents. The outcomes of interest included post-operative complication rate, operation time, length of hospital stay, post-operative pain and conversion to open procedure. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the risk of bias. Meta-analysis was performed using random-effect models.
Conclusions
The current evidence suggested that laparoscopic cholecystectomy in children and/or adolescents is safe resulting in lower rates of postoperative complications and length of stay, but longer operative times, when compared to the open approach.
PROSPERO registration
CRD42017067641
Level of evidence
Level III