First Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Patient Enrolled at CHLA - With Cookies to Celebrate!
- mbicket8
- Sep 4
- 1 min read
At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), the CARES for Kids Study team recently reached an exciting milestone: enrolling their first patient undergoing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a procedure to remove the gallbladder. To celebrate, the team baked cookies shaped like gallbladders — a sweet reminder that research can bring people together in creative ways.
A laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a common operation performed through small, minimally invasive incisions. While less invasive than open surgery, it can still be painful. In children and
teens, effective pain care after this procedure is especially important to reduce anxiety and distress and to help kids return more quickly to the activities they love.
Enrolling patients for this procedure is no small feat. Cholecystectomies are often urgent or emergent, leaving little time for study enrollment. That’s what makes the CHLA team’s accomplishment so meaningful: each family makes the active choice to join, providing consent and partnering with the study team to improve recovery for children in the future.
The CARES for Kids Study — as a large, pragmatic clinical trial conducted at different hospital systems across the United States — is designed to improve how we manage children’s pain after surgery, so future teens, adolescents, and young adults can heal faster, with less distress. Reaching this milestone brings us one step closer to that goal.
Congratulations to the CHLA team for enrolling their first laparoscopic cholecystectomy patient — and for having the “gall” to celebrate with cookies!
