Figure 3.

Forest plots for duration of surgery, conversion to open procedure, length of hospital stay, bile leak, stricture and reintervention in patients with choledocholithiasis undergoing a laparoscopic transcystic or transcholedochal approach. a Duration of surgery, showing an approximately 45 min longer operating time in the laparoscopic choledochotomy (LCD) group; b Conversion to open procedure; c length of hospital stay; d bile leak (as studies that had no leaks in either arm20, 24, 25, 26 were not included in generation of the forest plot, the software did not permit calculation of the odds ratio); e stricture; f reintervention (studies that reported no reinterventions18, 26, 27 were not included in the analysis, so calculation of an odds ratio was not possible). Random‐effects models were used for meta‐analysis. LTCE, laparoscopic transcystic exploration. a,c Standardized mean differences (MDs) and b,d–f odds ratios are shown with 95 per cent confidence intervals.