Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has practically become the current gold standard for the removal of symptomatic gallbladders with clear advantages. Its development has been slow in Sub-Saharan Africa. We reviewed our experience of this procedure at a tertiary facility in the subregion. Patients and Methods: All patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy from October 2014 to April 2018, at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, were retrospectively analyzed. The focus of the study was on patients' demographics, duration of symptoms, indications for surgery, procedure performed, duration of surgery, length of hospital stay, and morbidityand mortality data. Results: A total of 33 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed. There were 27 (84.4%) females and 5(15.6%) males giving a male-to-female ratio of 5.4:1. The age range was from 9 to 78 years with a mean of 40.6 ± 2.9. The peak age of presentation was in the fourth decade. The most common indication was biliary colic. There was an instance of open re-exploration for a duodenal injury. There was no biliary injury during the procedures and no indication for common bile duct exploration. Most (18, 56.3%) of the patients were discharged within 24 h, 10 (30.3%) within 48 h, and the rest were discharged later. The relationship between the duration of hospital stay and the mean duration of surgery was significant (P = 0.014). There was no long-term morbidity or mortality. Conclusion: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in our environment is safe and feasible with results comparable to other centers.

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The effectiveness of any pedagogical method is reflected on learners perception of key elements involved in the process of knowledge acquisition. The adoption of case-based learning is asserted to deliver superior positive influence on how students perceive learning process. The current study was designed to analyze and understand how students perceive the impact of CBL on learning process. Fifty six consenting 5^th year medical and dental students were randomly selected to participate in the study. The students were taught three selected topics using CBL as against the didactic lecture they were used to. At the end of the classes, the students were given a well-structured questionnaire to respond to in Likert-type of scale. Responses were analyzed with simple percentage and Mann-Whitney U test. Analyses reveal that the students rated its influence on learning process quite favorably. More than 80% of all the students agreed that CBL motivates personal study and promotes better student participation. However, while 76% (n = of male students strongly agreed that CBL fosters student-teacher interaction, only 40% of their female counterparts share that opinion to the same level. Overall, the way key elements were rated by the students demonstrated strong gender-program complexity. The high ratings that the students gave CBL suggest that adoption of CBL as a mean pedagogical method will enhance student learning experience, a factor that is critical to improving student performance at examination and future practice. However, the adoption and implementation of CBL should be gender and program sensitive to maximize its benefits and as such it recommended that further studies be carried on the influence gender and program of study on the effectiveness of CBL.

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