ObjectiveTo study the efficacy and safety of early laparoscopic cholecystectomy with percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) in the treatment of elderly patients with high risk moderate acute cholecystitis.MethodsThe clinical data of 218 elderly patients with high risk moderate acute cholecystitis admitted to Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery in Dazhou Central Hospital from January 2015 to October 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, including 112 cases in the PTGBD combined with early LC sequential treatment group (sequential treatment group) and 106 cases in the emergency LC group. In the sequential treatment group, PTGBD was performed first, and LC was performed 3–5 days later. The emergency LC group was treated with anti infection, antispasmodic, analgesia, and basic disease control immediately after admission, and LC was performed within 24 hours. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, conversion to laparotomy rate, postoperative catheter retention time, postoperative anal exhaust time, postoperative hospitalization time, hospitalization cost, incidence of incision infection, and incidence of complications above Dindo-Clavien level 2 were compared between the two groups to evaluate their clinical efficacy and safety.ResultsAll patients in the sequential treatment group were successfully treated with PTGBD, and the symptoms were significantly relieved within 72 hours. There were significant differences in the operation time, intraoperative blood loss, conversion to laparotomy rate, postoperative tube retention time, postoperative anal exhaust time, postoperative hospitalization time, incidence of incision infection, and the incidence of complications above Dindo-Clavien level 2 between the two groups (P<0.05), which were all better in the sequential treatment group, but the hospitalization cost of the sequential treatment group was higher than that of the emergency LC group (P<0.05). There were no cases of secondary operation and death in the 2 groups. After symptomatic treatment, the symptoms of all patients were relieved, without severe complications such as biliary injury and obstructive jaundice. All the 218 patients were followed up for 4–61 months, with an average of 35 months. During follow-up period, 7 patients in the sequential treatment group had postoperative complications, and complications were occurred in 13 patients in the emergency LC group.ConclusionPTGBD is the first choice for elderly high risk moderate acute cholecystitis patients with poor systemic condition and high risk of emergency surgery, but it has the disadvantage of relatively high medical cost.