Introduction

Percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) represents a management option to control sepsis in patients with acute cholecystitis, who are unable to tolerate surgery.

Aim

This review aimed to evaluate the outcomes of elderly patients treated with PC and compare it with emergent cholecystectomy.

Material and methods

An electronic search of the Embase, Medline Web of Science, and Cochrane databases was performed. Percutaneous cholecystostomy was used as the reference group, and weighted mean differences (WMD) were calculated for the effect of PC on continuous variables, and pooled odds ratios (POR) were calculated for discrete variables.

Results

There were 20 trials included in this review. Utilisation of PC was associated with significantly increased mortality (POR = 4.85; 95% CI: 1.02–7.30; p = 0.0001) and increased re-admission rates (POR = 2.95; 95% CI: 2.21–3.87; p < 0.0001).

Conclusions

This pooled analysis established that patients treated with PC appear to have increased mortality and readmission rates relative to those managed with cholecystectomy.