[Diagnostic reliability of emergency laparoscopy (author's transl)]

Urgent laparoscopy was carried out in 684 patients because of acute abdominal pains. Laparoscopic diagnoses have been compared with the clinical tentative diagnoses on one hand and with the operative or final clinical diagnosis on the other hand. The referring diagnoses were in 20% "acute abdomen" without an attempt to uncriminating a particular organ, the clinical tentative diagnosis turned out to be wrong in 40% regarding the inspected a cause of abdominal pains. Laparoscopic diagnoses compared with operative findings proved to be wrong in 10 out of 296 cases but only in 2 out of these 10 patients the indication of operation remained incertain. In 1 out of 388 patients conservatively treated according to the laparoscopic finding, the further clinical course forced to operate upon, i. e. to change the diagnosis fundamentally. The high diagnostic reliability of urgent laparoscopy in patients with an "acute abdomen" decisively contributed to diminishing the number of explorative laparotomies and advancing indicated operations.