The Role of Laparoscopy in Patients with Suspected Peritonitis: Experience of a Single Institution

Purpose: In this report, we retrospectively evaluate the effect of a laparoscopic approach in the diagnosis and treatment of acute abdominal pain in patients with suspected peritonitis. Patients and Methods: We evaluated the clinical records of patients admitted to our institution between January 1995 and July 2001 with a diagnosis of acute abdomen and suspected peritonitis. Results: Ninety four of 229 patients underwent diagnostic laparoscopy. In this series, 83 (88.3%) of the cases were successfully treated by emergent laparoscopy for an acute abdomen. Eleven (11.7%) required conversion to an open laparotomy procedure. Overall, the preoperative diagnosis was confirmed by laparoscopy in 67 (71.27%) of the cases. It was not confirmed in 27 (28.73%). Postoperative mortality was 4.25%. Morbidity was 8.5%. Discussion: Data reported in the literature establish that laparoscopy offers adequate visualization of the entire abdomen and pelvic cavity in the diagnosis of an abdomen acute secondary to peritonitis. I...