Laparoscopically assisted colectomy in the therapy of diverticulitis

After establishing endoscopic techniques for cholecystectomy, appendectomy, hernioplasty and fundoplication, laparoscopic colon resection was first performed at our institution in 1997. With the help of a retrospective analysis, first results of laparoscopic colon resection for diverticulitis were evaluated. The short-term efficiency of the endoscopic method was represented to compare with data from conventional colonic resection. Mean operating time was 196 min in 62 laparoscopic resections, whereby 46.8% of patients had a severely inflamed diverticulitis. Mean length of specimens was 31.4 cm. In 9 of the cases a conversion was necessary. Total morbidity was 20.9%, including one anastomotic leakage as the most severe complication. Despite preselection of cases, results confirmed low morbidity of the laparoscopic method. However, possible advantages of the endoscopic technique will have to be evaluated by randomised studies.