Safety and effectiveness of laparoscopic peritoneal lavage in Hinchey III diverticulitis

Abstract Introduction The management of Hinchey III diverticulitis has been subject to investigation over the years. Hartmann's procedure is widely referred as the standard treatment. However, this option is associated with relevant morbidity and mortality which motivated the arise of alternative interventions such as the laparoscopic peritoneal lavage. Aim The aim of this review is to synthesize the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of laparoscopic peritoneal lavage in the management of diverticulitis with generalized purulent peritonitis in comparison to resection procedures. Materials and methods The bibliographic research was conducted using the electronic database Medline from Pubmed. Of the 358 articles identified, our criterious selection resulted in a total of 27 articles for review. Results Overall, laparoscopic lavage revealed low mortality rates with no remarkable differences between procedures. The non-randomized studies tended to show lower recurrence and morbidity rates comparatively to the latest randomized controlled trials, in the lavage groups, however, no significant differences have been found. Discussion and conclusion In this review, laparoscopic peritoneal lavage proved to be safe and comparatively effective, although not superior to resection, reaching mixed results. We believe it can be applied as a damage control operation to treat or as a bridge to elective resection. Still, more studies are needed to determine indications and factors for the success of laparoscopic lavage.