COMPLICATIONS OF LAPAROSCOPY - OPERATIVE AND DIAGNOSTIC

Objective: To assess the characteristics and rates of complications fo r operative laparoscopy and diagnostic laparoscopy. Design: Retrospect ive review. Setting: Tertiary-care university hospital. Patients: Two thousand three hundred twenty-four patients undergoing operative lapar oscopy or diagnostic laparoscopy. Interventions: Operative laparoscopy including lysis of adhesions, tubal surgery, ovarian surgery, uterine surgery, or destruction of endometriosis. Main Outcome Measures: Comp lication rates for operative and diagnostic laparoscopies were tabulat ed and compared. Results: The overall major complication rate for this series of 2,324 laparoscopies was 0.22%. There were five major and 15 minor complications. In the operative laparoscopy group, there were m ore complications from Veress needle and trocar insertion (n = 15) tha n from the actual operative procedures (n = 3). There mere more total complications in the operative laparoscopy group (n = 18) than in the diagnostic laparoscopy group (n = 3). Conclusion: Operative laparoscop y is efficacious for a variety of gynecologic surgical procedures.