[Laparoscopic adhesiolysis in therapy of chronic abdominal pain]

Over a period of 14 months 16 patients with chronic abdominal pain were subjected to diagnostic laparoscopy and laparoscopic adhesiolysis. Selective criteria for this operation included previous surgery to the abdomen, clinical symptoms for more than six months and non-conclusive findings through other diagnostic procedures. Operations where an appendicectomy in addition to the adhesiolysis was carried out, were excluded from the study. All patients were requested to quantify their pain by way of a visual analogue scale preoperatively, two days postoperatively and 4 to 18 months postoperatively. At the time of the last evaluation nine (56%) out of 16 patients were without pain. Five patients (31%) reported significantly reduced symptoms, and in two cases (13%) the operation had no beneficial effect. 11 patients would recommend laparoscopic adhesiolysis, three felt indifferent and two would not recommend the procedure. In view of these results we would like to suggest that some patients with unexplained abdominal pain may benefit from laparoscopic adhesiolysis.