Videosurgery and other miniinvasive techniques 2011; 6/3 121 The role of laparoscopy in abdominal trauma – review of the literature

A b s t r a c t The necessity of urgent explorative laparotomy as a standard procedure in the treatment of abdominal penetrating wounds is controversial. Mandatory surgical intervention for penetrating abdominal trauma yields a high rate of neg-ative laparotomies in the absence of visceral injuries. Laparoscopy is an alternative diagnostic procedure inspecting the peritoneum for signs of perforation and excluding significant intra-abdominal injuries. Following current guide-lines, diagnostic laparoscopy should be used with caution only in selected cases due to the limited amount of reliable data confirming the effectiveness of such treatment. We present a review of the literature analysing the role of diag-nostic laparoscopy in abdominal trauma. Key words: abdominal trauma, diagnostic laparoscopy