Conservative treatment of acute cholecystitis: a systematic review and pooled analysis.

In medical practice, the tendency to remove an inflamed gallbladder is deeply rooted. Cholecystectomy, however, is associated with relatively high complication rates, and therefore the decision whether or not to perform surgery should be well considered. For some patients, the surgical risk-benefit profile may favour conservative treatment. The objective of this study was to examine the short- and long-term outcome of conservative treatment of patients with acute calculous cholecystitis.