Laparoscopic colon surgery for benign disease: a comparison to open surgery

There remains a debate in the literature about the advisability of laparoscopic surgery for malignant disease of the colon. Current prospective studies will hopefully answer this question. However, for benign diseases of the colon, we believe laparoscopic surgery offers many advantages including decreased postoperative pain, early discharge from the hospital, and early return to normal activities. We retrospectively reviewed our experience with laparoscopic colectomies for benign disease to see whether these procedures could be done safely and if the proposed advantages could be realized.

Thirty-eight laparoscopic colon resections performed for benign disease were compared to 39 open colon resections with respect to operating times, length of hospital stay, estimated blood loss, days until first postoperative bowel movement, and complications.

The laparoscopic colon resection group had decreased length of stay, less blood loss, earlier return of bowel function, and an equivalent number of complications. Laparoscopic cases did take an average of 24 minutes longer.

The use of laparoscopic colon surgery for benign disease not only affords the patient the advantage of the laparoscopic approach, but also allows the surgeon to gain experience while awaiting the results of ongoing trials for laparoscopic colon surgery in malignant disease.