[Endoscopic surgery during pregnancy. A case report of cholecystectomy]

Pregnancy used to be considered a contraindication for endoscopic surgery of the digestive tract. We report a case of cholecystectomy carried out laparoscopically for complicated gall stones in a woman who was 14 weeks pregnant. There was no post-operative maternal or fetal morbidity. The mother carried on the pregnancy to term normally and gave birth to a normal infant. The same results have been reported in the literature for three other cases of cholecystectomy and six of appendicectomy. The sole technical precautions that had to be undertaken were in introducing and placing the trocars, taking into account the size of the uterus. There has been no scientific proof that CO2 is toxic for the fetus. Clinical practice shows that endoscopic surgery is possible without any obstetrical risk including thrombo-emboli, nor specific sepsis occurring in any of the three trimesters of pregnancy. The advantages of the endoscopic approach are that there is less post-operative pain and therefore less need to take analgesics. There are no complications because of an abdominal wound and the patient can both feed and walk about immediately after the operation with a reduction of the time spent in hospital. There is probably less risk of aborting when compared with classical laparotomy. The endoscopic route can be chosen when surgery is needed in the digestive tract during pregnancy.