Laparoscopic Surgery for Complicated Meckel's Diverticulum: Report of Three Cases

Abstract

Meckel's diverticulum is the most common congenital abnormality of the gastrointestinal tract, but only 4% of cases may cause symptoms or develop complications. The complications associated with Meckel's diverticulum are age-related. Children usually have painless gastrointestinal bleeding while adults can develop small intestinal obstruction. Meckel's diverticulitis with or without perforation is also a common complication. It is usually misdiagnosed as acute appendicitis preoperatively. We present three cases of complicated Meckel's diverticulum that were found and treated by a laparoscopic approach under the preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The literature is also reviewed for the optimal laparoscopic treatment of complicated Meckel's diverticulum.