LAPAROSCOPIC ADHESIOLYSIS FOR CHRONIC ABD OMINAL-PAIN

Over a period of 14 months 16 patients with chronic abdominal pain wer e subjected to diagnostic laparoscopy and laparoscopic adhesiolysis. S elective criteria for this operation included previous surgery to the abdomen, clinical symptoms for more than six months and nonconclusive findings through other diagnostic procedures. Operations where an appe ndicectomy in addition to the adhesiolysis was carried out, were exclu ded from the study. All patients were requested to quantify their pain by way of a visual analogue scale preoperatively, two days postoperat ively and 4 to 18 months postoperatively. At the time of the last eval uation nine (56 %) out of 16 patients were without pain. Five patients (31 %) reported significantly reduced symptoms, and in two cases (13 %) the operation had no beneficial effect. 11 patients would recommend laparoscopic adhesiolysis, three felt indifferent and two would not r ecommend the procedure. In view of these results we would like to sugg est that some patients with unexplained abdominal pain may benefit fro m laparoscopic adhesiolysis.