Rouviere’s Sulcus: Frequency and Types among Patients presented to Wad Madani Teaching Hospital for Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy; Gezira State; Sudan

Scientific background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard for surgical treatment of gallstones disease. Method: The study aimed to determine presence and types of Rouviere’s sulcus along with its association with gender, and postoperative morbidity among Sudanese patients presented for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and operated on at Wad Madani Teaching Hospital, Gezira State, Sudan; during the period from November 2022 to November 2023. It was a comparative cross-sectional study. Study population were patients of more than 18 years old; where total coverage of them (150) was done. Data was collected from files and records of patients presented there during study period. Master sheet was used for data collection. SPSS version 25.0 was used for analysis. P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Age of participants ranged from 17 to 85 years, with a mean age of 47.57 (SD ± 15.14). Majority of them were female (93.3%). Gallstones were present in 99.3%. Rouviere’s sulcus was identified intraoperatively among 92.7%. Identified sulcus type was: Open sulcus (54.0%), Close sulcus (27.3%), and Scar sulcus (11.3%). Postoperative operative outcomes: 95.3% experienced uneventful outcomes; and 4.7% experienced complications. Both postoperative complications and gender, had no statistical associations with the presence of Rouviere’s sulcus; P-value = 0.470, and 0.112 respectively. Also, there was no significant statistical association between gender and sulcus type (P-value 0.301). Conclusion and recommendations: No significant statistical association between both postoperative complications and gender with the presence of Rouviere’s sulcus, or between gender and sulcus type; was identified. Further study was highly recommended.