The effect of previous abdominal surgery on urological laparoscopy

Abdominal surgery causes adhesions that may render subsequent laparoscopic access and dissection problematic. We determined the effect of previous surgery on the operative outcome in a large series of patients undergoing urological laparoscopy.

The records of 700 consecutive laparoscopic procedures performed at a single institution from 1995 to 2001 were reviewed. Patient gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) patient classification, surgical history, operative time, estimated blood loss, transfusion rate, rate of conversion to an open procedure, complication rate and hospital stay were assessed in each patient. Patients were categorized by anatomical site of previous surgeries and the type of laparoscopic procedure performed. Statistical analysis was performed with 1-way ANOVA, and the chi-square, Fisher exact and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Of the 700 patients 366 (52%) had never undergone surgery, 105 (15%) had a history of abdominal surgery at the same anatomical region and 229 (33%) had a history of abdominal surgery at a different region. Overall previous abdominal surgery of any type was associated with female gender, higher ASA classification, increased age and an increased rate of perioperative transfusion (p = 0.0001). A history of surgery at the same site was associated with increased operative time (p = 0.03) and increased hospital stay (p = 0.02). Differences in operative blood loss (p = 0.3), and the complication (p = 0.11) and conversion (p = 0.08) rates in patients with and without a history of surgery did not attain significance. Outcomes analysis of individual types of surgery showed similar results except for renal biopsy. In these cases previous surgery was not associated with increased age, ASA score or transfusion rate.

Of all patients presenting to a single center for urological laparoscopy 48% had a history of abdominal surgery. Overall compared with patients with no history of surgery those with such a history tended to be older, predominantly female and at significantly higher operative risk. Patients with a history of surgery who underwent nephrectomy or pyeloplasty were also more likely to have received blood transfusion perioperatively, which was probably related to their increased age and higher degree of medical co-morbidity. There were no significant differences in operative blood loss, rate of conversion to open procedure or rate of operative complications. Therefore, previous abdominal surgery does not appear to affect adversely the performance of subsequent urological laparoscopy.