Acute cholecystitis during COVID-19 pandemic: a multisocietary position statement
Fabio Cesare Campanile, Mauro Podda, Alberto Arezzo, Emanuele Botteri, Alberto Sartori, Mario Guerrieri, Elisa Cassinotti, Irnerio Angelo Muttillo, Marcello Pisano, Riccardo Brachet Contul, Giancarlo D’Ambrosio, Diego Cuccurullo, Carlo Bergamini, Marco E. Allaix, Valerio Caracino, Wanda Petz, Marco Milone, Gianfranço Silecchia, Gabriele Anania, Antonino Agrusa, Salomone Di Saverio, Salvatore Casarano, Caterina Cicala, P Narilli, Sara Federici, Massimo Carlini, Alessandro M. Paganini, Paolo Pietro Bianchi, Adelona Salaj, Andrea Mazzari, Roberto Luca Meniconi, Alessandro Puzziello, Giovanni Terrosu, Belinda De Simone, Federico Coccolini, Fausto Catena, Ferdinando Agresta
Abstract
Following the spread of the infection from the new SARS-CoV2 coronavirus in March 2020, several surgical societies have released their recommendations to manage the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the daily clinical practice. The recommendations on emergency surgery have fueled a debate among surgeons on an international level.We maintain that laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains the treatment of choice for acute cholecystitis, even in the COVID-19 era. Moreover, since laparoscopic cholecystectomy is not more likely to spread the COVID-19 infection than open cholecystectomy, it must be organized in such a way as to be carried out safely even in the present situation, to guarantee the patient with the best outcomes that minimally invasive surgery has shown to have.