Use of a hand-held Doppler to avoid abdominal wall vessels in laparoscopic surgery

Laparoscopy in general surgery is becoming a wide-spread technique. Substantial anterior abdominal wall haemorrhage is a recognised complication of the laparoscopic technique. Ten patients were examined with an 8 MHz hand-held Doppler and the anterior abdominal wall vessels were marked on the skin. Colour flow duplex was used to confirm the presence of vessels found in this way. All 40 epigastric arteries were marked accurately and confirmed; 75 other intramural arteries were identified, although the majority were too small for duplex confirmation. The preoperative use of hand-held Doppler is a quick and non-invasive way to identify the epigastric and larger intramural arteries. Routine use of this technique to mark abdominal wall vessels in the areas of trocar insertion should reduce this complication of laparoscopic surgery.