Keys to successful laparoscopic adhesiolysis for adhesive small bowel obstruction: A scoping review

Adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) is a common acute abdominal complication. Although non-surgical treatment is the primary treatment approach, more and more studies show that surgical treatment can reduce the incidence rate. Laparoscopic adhesiolysis (LA) has many advantages of minimally invasive surgery.But not all patients with ASBO are suitable for LA.

The aim of this scoping review was to summarize the keys to successful LA by analyzing the extensive literature.

A literature search was conducted in PubMed for articles on laparoscopic treatment of ASBO published between January 2000 and February 2024. This scoping review followed the framework suggested by Arksey and O'Malley for a scoping review.

By analyzing the included studies we found that LA does have many advantages and can be performed safely. However, the prerequisite is to select patients with simple adhesions whenever possible and to focus on reasonable intraoperative measures. To improve the success rate of LA, we summarized the following characteristics of patients: no contraindications related to pneumoperitoneum, few previous abdominal operations (≤2), no pregnancy, bowel dilatation < 4 cm in diameter, simple adhesions, no diffuse peritonitis, no history of abdominal radiotherapy, <24 h of ASBO, limited previous abdominal surgery (appendix, cholecystectomy), no bowel strangulation ischemia, and bowel necrosis or bowel resection required for other reasons. In addition, we also summarized reasonable intraoperative measures.

Laparoscopic adhesiolysis has many advantages.Specific patients can benefit from LA. This scoping review Summarized the conditions for patient screening and reasonable intraoperative measures with the aim of providing a reference for surgeons, thereby ensuring that more patients benefit from LA.