LAPAROSCOPIC SONOGRAPHY - A REAL ALTERNATIVE TO CHOLANGIOGRAPHY DURING LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY

Background/Aims: The routine use of intraoperative cholangiography (CG P) during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is still under debate. Pre vious reports suggest that intraopercrtive sonography can replace CGP in the evaluation of common duct lithiasis during open cholecystectomy . The present study was performed to evaluate the possibile role of so nography during LC. Patients and Methods: 45 patients were submitted t o laparoscopic sonography of biliary tree during LC. In all cases, CGP was performed. Results: In 37 cases, sonography did not show the pres ence of stones; in 7 cases, common bile duct stones were identified by sonography; one false negative was observed. A sensitivity of 87.5 %, a specificity of 100 % and an overall accuracy of 97.8 % were obtaine d A false positive was obtained with CGP with a sensitivity of 100 %, a specificity 97.3 %, and art overall accuracy of 97.8 %. Conclusions: Laparoscopic sonography can. represent can adequate substitute for CG P as a screening procedure during LC.