Laparoscopy During Pregnancy: A Literature Review

Objective: To review the literature regarding the role of laparoscopy during pregnancy, particularly adnexal mass and non-obstetric surgery, incorporating the results of a series of 9 cases of laparoscopy during pregnancy at our centers. Materials and Methods: A Medline search was per-formed to review the literature, and the reference lists pro-vided by those articles were further explored for citations regarding laparoscopic adnexal surgery, appendectomy, and cholecystectomy. Our series of 9 patients consisted of pregnant patients with adnexal mass or acute abdomen who would otherwise have undergone exploratory laparo-tomy. Follow-up data for these 9 cases were collected by office visits, inquiry to the primary referring physicians, and telephone calls to the patient. Results: The literature search yielded 42 additional cases of operative pelvic laparoscopy and 51 cases of abdominal operative laparoscopy (cholecystectomy and appendecto-my). The publications, particularly regarding cholecystec-tomy, were supportive of the laparoscopic approach during pregnancy. All of the patients in our series had favorable outcomes. Conclusions: Advanced operative laparoscopy has been successfully performed for certain indications during preg-nancy