BACKGROUND: We performed a retrospective comparative study to clarify the optimal gallbladder drainage method prior to elective cholecystectomy. METHODS: We collected data from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database about cholecystitis patients who underwent gallbladder drainage prior to cholecystectomy in a subsequent hospitalization between April 2014 and March 2020. We divided the study population into two groups: an endoscopic gallbladder stenting (EGBS) group and a percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) group. We performed propensity score matching and compared surgical outcomes related to cholecystectomy. RESULTS: We collected 6306 cases (PTGBD: 6112 cases
EGBS: 194 cases). In propensity score matching, we obtained 193 matched pairs from the study population. Long-term postoperative antibiotics therapy (2 vs. 9
risk ratio 4.7 [95% CI: 1.1-30.9]) was more frequent in the EGBS group than the PTGBD group. There were no significant differences between the two groups for laparotomic cholecystectomy and postoperative bile duct drainage. For reoperation, postoperative abdominal drainage and postoperative blood transfusion, there were few outcome occurrences and effect measures were not obtained. CONCLUSION: Gallbladder drainage by EGBS may have more risk of surgical complications related to elective cholecystectomy than PTGBD. There are a few reports on this topic, so further research should be conducted.