La biopsia laparoscopica nel trattamento delle linfoadenopatie intraddominali: esperienza preliminare

Summary. Laparoscopic biopsy in the management of intra-abdominal lymphadenophaty. A starting experi-ence. Introduction: Imagin-guided percutaneous biopsy has significantly improved diagnosis of intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy. However, in many cases thè tissue retrieved may be inadequate for histological evaluation and immunohistochemical analysis. Laparoscopy plays an important role in thè management of intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy and abdominal repercussion of sys-temic diseases. We present our initial experience evalu-ating the role of laparoscopic biopsy. Patients and methods: From January 2003 to April 2004, 7 patients (4 males and 3 females, mean age 60.2 years. range. 41-81 ) with intra or retro peritoneal lymphadenopathy un-derwent laparoscopic biopsy. Five patients were submit-ted to a node biopsy to determine the histological diag¬nosis and the clinical staging of an intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy suspected for lymphoma. In two cas¬es the laparoscopie biopsy was performed during a la¬paroscopie cholecystectomy due to an intra-operative evidence of iliac lymphadenopathy. Results: The con-version rate was nil, the procedure was uneventful in all patients. The average hospital stay was 3.1 days (range. 3-5). The diagnosis of the disease, established by la-paroscopy. was in 4 patients lymphoma. undifferentiat-ed carcinoma in 1 patient, reactive tissue in 2 patients. Condusions: Our early experience shows that diagnos-tic laparoscopy is safe and efficient in diagnosing intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy and abdominal repercus¬sion of systemic diseases.