Diagnostic Laparoscopy in Management of Acute Abdomen

Abstract

Acute abdomen means the patient complains of an acute attack of abdominal pain that may occur suddenly or gradually over a period of several hours and presents a symptom complex which suggests a disease that possibly threatens life and demands immediate or urgent diagnosis for early treatment. It is very important to make the diagnosis as early as possible. Delay will definitely worsen the condition of the patient and may lead to fatal outcome. Laparoscopy is one of the modalities that could be of help in early diagnosis. The authors’ aim is to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic value of laparoscopy in cases with acute abdominal pain. This study is based on 100 cases of unclear etiology after routine investigation. As a result, the most common site of pain observed was on the right lower quadrant (40%) followed by right upper quadrant in (32%). A definite laparoscopic diagnosis was concluded in 80 patients who were treated laparoscopically, while in the rest of 20 patients, open laparotomy became essential. Appendicular (25%) and gall bladder (27%) pathology were the most common laparoscopic findings, followed by adhesion (8%), and tubercular pathology (5%). The authors thus concluded that laparoscopy is a valuable tool for early diagnosis in patients, with acute abdominal pain.

Keywords: Laparoscopy, acute abdomen, diagnostic laparoscopy, appendicitis, adhesions, quadrant, laparotomy, therapeutic

Cite this Article

Kala Surendra K, Mathur Ravi K. Diagnostic laparoscopy in management of acute abdomen. Research and Reviews: Journal of Surgery. 2015; 4(3): 8–13p.