Basic Principles of Safe Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

Careful dissection and accurate decision-making is the key to performing a safe laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The focus of this chapter is to describe standard safety maneuvers in order to achieve the goals of this operation. Careful patient selection, appropriate timing of the operation, and adherence to safe principles, namely, achieving all three aspects of the critical view of safety (CVS) and recognizing triggers for a “safety pause,” are paramount to preventing vascular or biliary injuries.