Experience with Laparoscopic Appendectomy —The Technique and Our Views of its Indications—

Abstract

Abstract: Since June, 1991 a laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) was performed on eleven patients with suspected appendicitis which could not be confirmed by the conventional diagnostic methods. The patients included 7 males and 4 females, with a mean age of 27, 9, ranging from 16 to 46 years. No postoperative complications were encountered. The laparoscopic diagnoses included gangrenous appendicitis in 2, suppurative appendicitis in 2, catarrhal appendicitis in 4, salpingitis in 2 and an appendiceal mass in one patient (Case 7). Histopathological diagnoses were phlegmonous appendicitis in 3, mucinous cystadenoma in one and catarrhal appendicitis in 7 patients. Two cases of salpingitis and a case with ovarian bleeding were treated conservatively after incidental laparoscopic removal of the appendix. Case 7 was histopathologically diagnosed as having mucinous cystadenoma. The patients’postoperative hospital stay was from 5 to 8 days, with an average of 6.9 days. All patients had been given the permission to be discharged by the third POD but they stayed longer because of benefits given by the health insurance system very specific to Japan.LA in our clinic has so far been limited to selected patients in whom the diagnosis of appendicitis could not been confirmed and laparoscopic examination was indicated, mainly due to manpower problems involving surgeons, anesthetists and operating room nurses. However, LA provides not only benefits for patients but also several merits for surgeons including better exposure of the operating field in most cases when compared with an open appendectomy. We feel, therefore, that the indications for LA might be extended more widely, probably to most cases of appendicitis.