English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Laparoscopic surgery has brought about a paradigm shift in modern surgical care. It has varied applications in gastrointestinal surgery, urological surgery, gynaecological surgery and oncosurgery. Better cosmesis, less post-operative pain, hence reduced need for post-operative analgesia, shorter recovery period and faster return to daily activities are its advantages. However, certain complications like port site infection, hemorrhage, hernia, TB or metastasis are morbid complications that undermine its benefits. In this study, we wanted to identify the various port site complications in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery for different diseases in our hospital and assess its incidence. METHODS This is a prospective descriptive study. 125 patients admitted to the Department of General Surgery from November 2018 to October 2020 who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria underwent elective laparoscopic surgeries. They were observed post-operatively for various port site complications. All the data was entered into the Microsoft Excel 2007 software and further analysis was done using SPSS software version 24.0 (IBM Inc. Chicago). A P - value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Of 125 patients that underwent laparoscopic surgery, 9 patients (7.2 %) developed complications specific to port site upon a follow-up of 3 months. Complications observed were port site infection (n = 4, 3.2 %), port site hemorrhage (n = 2, 1.6 %). Port site hernia, port site tuberculosis (TB), umblical port site hernia and mild subcutaneous emphysema were observed in one patient each (0.8 %). Scar abnormalitites were seen in 3 patients (2.4 %). CONCLUSIONS Laparoscopy is associated with minimal complications. However rare these complications are, they take away from the advantages of the laparoscopic surgery and the reputation of the hospital and surgeon alike. Apt patient selection, meticulous surgical technique, proper sterilization of the laparoscopic instruments and effective antibiotics use can further reduce the incidence of complications. KEYWORDS Laparoscopy, Port Site Complications, Infection, Hernia, Hemorrhage