Diagnostic laparoscopy

Each diagnostic procedure needs to be viewed in the context of all the other available diagnostic tools, and therefore has to be reevaluated periodically. This is also true of diagnostic laparoscopy, whether performed by gastroenterologists in patients under sedoanalgesia or by surgeons in patients under general anesthesia. Publications during the previous year have shed light on many important issues. Despite its greater expense, fluorescence laparoscopy may have advantages over white-light laparoscopy in the diagnosis of small tumor seeding. The unchanged superiority of laparoscopy over other imaging modalities for detecting small superficial liver metastases and peritoneal seeding has been clearly demonstrated. Whether cytological investigation of peritoneal washing can add relevant information to laparoscopy remains a matter of debate. Diagnostic laparoscopy before surgery has proved to be effective in many fields, including traumatology. The use of diagnostic laparoscopy in certain clinical circumstances, such as the early postoperative period after major cardiac surgery using extracorporeal circulation, appears promising. A transgastric approach to the peritoneal cavity for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, the feasibility of which has been demonstrated in a porcine model, is an exciting innovation with as yet unforeseeable implications.