Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in teenagers.

The positive experience with laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in the adult surgical community encouraged us to perform LC in our last nine adolescent patients requiring cholecystectomy. There were no operative or postoperative complications, and the average hospital stay was less than 3 days. All the teenagers resumed their normal activities 1 week after surgery and were pleased with the small operative scars. Once the technique has been mastered and adequate experience gained with the new instrumentation, laparoscopic cholecystectomy would seem to offer many advantages in the teenage patient.