World Journal of Laparoscopic Surgery

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VOLUME 8 , ISSUE 1 ( January-April, 2015 ) > List of Articles

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Role of Diagnostic Laparoscopy in Patients with Acute or Chronic Nonspecific Abdominal Pain

A Rubbia, GA Faryal, I Javeria, M Roohul

Citation Information : Rubbia A, Faryal G, Javeria I, Roohul M. Role of Diagnostic Laparoscopy in Patients with Acute or Chronic Nonspecific Abdominal Pain. World J Lap Surg 2015; 8 (1):7-12.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10033-1237

Published Online: 01-06-2010

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2015; The Author(s).


Abstract

Aim

The aim of our study was to evaluate and establish the role of diagnostic laparoscopy (DL) in unexplained/nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) in this era of therapeutic laparoscopy, and thus to analyze and support the theory of minimal access surgery in diagnosing and treating abdominal conditions.

Materials and methods

In this prospective study included patients with abdominal pain of (i) more than 6 hours and less than 6 days duration (acute) and (ii) more than or equal to 6 months duration (chronic) were included whether presenting as a surgical emergency or coming to surgical outpatient department (OPD) in whom a DL was performed after failure to achieve a diagnosis with conventional methods. The study included a total of 168 consecutive patients who fulfilled our inclusion criteria and underwent DL for NSAP. Their demographic and clinical data, admission dates and dates of surgery were noted. Outcome of surgery was recorded and the data were analyzed to ascertain the role and diagnostic yield of laparoscopy in our department, both in acute and chronic abdominal pain of nonspecific nature. Patients were followed postoperative for 3 months for any recurrence of symptoms.

Results

Laparoscopy yielded diagnoses in 161 of these patients giving a diagnostic yield of 95.8%. Appendicitis (39.2%), gynecological pathology (16%) and abdominal tuberculosis (8.9%) were the major findings. Therapeutic procedures were performed in 112 cases (66.6%) where peroperative pathology was identified. In 38 cases (22.6%) where there was strong clinical suspicion of appendicitis and no pathology could be identified peroperative, an appendectomy was performed. Twenty-eight (73.6%) of these appendix specimens were found inflamed on subsequent histologic examination. There were no complications in this series.

Conclusion

This study establishes the role of early DL as a safe procedure with high efficacy. Hence, it is an effective investigative tool in undiagnosed abdominal pain of both acute and chronic nature.

How to cite this article

Rubbia A, Faryal GA, Javeria I, Roohul M. Role of Diagnostic Laparoscopy in Patients with Acute or Chronic Nonspecific Abdominal Pain. World J Lap Surg 2015;8(1):7-12.


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