Treatment of small-bowel obstruction by laparoscopy in children multicentric study

In May 1996, the team working on infantile laparoscopy (GECI) carried out a retrospective study (using questionnaires) to analyse the use of laparosco py in child postoperative obstructions (involving bands or adhesions). Of t he 86 laparoscopic attempts, 66 could have been performed without conversio n. Technical difficulties were responsible for the majority of the conversi ons performed on children aged 3 years younger than the average age in this study (10 years old), Digestive perforation accounts for a fifth of conver sions, the perforations either occurring when the operational trocars were introduced (3 cases), or during viscerolysis (2 cases). For 5 children the treatment failed at an early stage (in the month following the operation). Relapses occurred in 3 children, usually at a later date (between 6 months and 3 years). Laparoscopic treatment of bowel obstruction should always be attempted, for as the results of the study show, morbidity is low and morta lity is nil and the postoperative phase is quick and painless.