[Value of diagnostic laparoscopy and minimal invasive procedures in acute abdomen]. / Der Stellenwert der diagnostischen Laparoskopie und minimal-invasiver Verfahren beim akuten Abdomen.

During the last three years 172 diagnostic laparoscopies (DL) were performed at our department in patients with an acute abdomen of unclear causes. This corresponds to 17% of all patients who underwent operation due to an acute abdomen in the same period. Always the indication for a diagnostic laparoscopy arose then, when the cause or the localization of the acute abdomen could not be found by conventional diagnostic methods. The advantages of DL were either the confirmation (93%) or the exclusion (7%) of the diagnosis "acute abdomen", the exact localization and simultaneously a definitive operative treatment of the cause by minimal invasive interventions (n = 109/65%). In these patients with acute abdomen the main causes were acute inflammations of gallbladder (n = 48) and appendix (n = 29), ulcus perforations (n = 9) and ileus (n = 9). The conversion rate amounted to 2.7%, the postoperative complication rate to 11% and the lethality rate to 1.8% in these patients. A new indication is the so-called "bedside laparoscopy" as means to control the postoperative course of mesenteric embolism (n = 9) and diffuse peritonitis (n = 3) in order to avoid the stress of a second-look operation for these seriously ill patients or to secure the indication for relaparotomy.

[A combined endoscopic surgical treatment concept in acute biliary pancreatitis]. / Kombiniertes, endoskopisch-chirurgisches Behandlungskonzept bei akuter, biliärer Pankreatitis.

This paper presents the results of a combined endoscopic-surgical approach with management of acute biliary pancreatitis in 91 patients. The diagnosis was always made by means of endoscopic-retrograde cholangiography. Papillary or bile duct stones, or unmistakable signs of previous stone passage, and in exceptional cases flow obstruction due to preiampullary diverticuli were considered criteria for a positive diagnosis. All 91 patients were subjected to endoscopic sphincterotomy with/without stone extraction subsequent to the diagnostic cholangiogram. Endoscopic intervention was performed as soon as possible after admission to hospital, but by 48 hours at the latest. Cholecystectomy was carried out in all patients who were free of risk factors and without previous cholecystectomy, during the disease-free interval. The complication rate of this combined endoscopic-surgical approach amounted to 10.9%; the mortality rate was 3.3%. The achieved results suggest that endoscopic sphincterotomy with stone extraction in the acute phase of biliary pancreatitis is the method of choice in order to interrupt the process of this disease. In combination with the final surgical treatment of gallstone disease by cholecystectomy to avoid recurrences, the prognosis of acute biliary pancreatitis can be significantly improved by using this combined endoscopic-surgical management.

[Extracorporeal shock wave treatment of calcium containing gallbladder calculi]. / Die extrakorporale Stosswellenbehandlung von kalkhältigen Gallenblasensteinen.

A total of 50 patients--37 female and 13 male--with an average age of 50 +/- 27 years (23-86 years), suffering from rim-calcified gallbladder stones, underwent extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL), using an ultrasound-guided overhead module of Lithostar Plus (Siemens Company). The total number of stones was 87, with an average diameter of 16 +/- 7 (7-38) mm. 29 patients had a solitary stone, 13 had two and 8 patients three or more stones. All patients received adjunct medication of 10 mg/kg body weight chenodeoxycholic and ursodeoxycholic acid 14 days prior to ESWL as a single bedtime dose. An average number of 5,300 +/- 2,200 shock waves (1,200-15,000) was applied for stone disintegration. The corresponding energy amounted to 750 bar. 29 patients needed one, 21 two or more treatments. After ESWL a variety of clinical abnormalities was observed: flank pain (15%), transient microhaematuria (33%) and transient macrohaematuria (2%). Subsequent to ESWL 5 patients suffered from complications such as biliary obstruction 3 weeks to 9 months after treatment and had to undergo ERCP. Three times endoscopic papillotomy was performed to remove stones from the common bile duct. Up to now 4 patients have undergone cholecystectomy: acute cholecystitis (n = 3), recurrent colicky pain (n = 1). 20 patients have been followed up over a 12-month period; 12 of them are completely free of stones and fragments.

[Prevention and treatment of postoperative fistulae--new indications for fibrin gluing]. / Verhütung bzw. Behandlung postoperativer Fisteln--Neue Indikationen für die Fibrinklebung.

The additional sealing of bronchial and gastrointestinal sutures and anastomoses, respectively, by means of fibrin sealant helped to significantly reduce the postoperative dehiscence rate; this rate amounted to 3.6% for additionally sealed bronchus stump occlusions and to 4.2% in gastrointestinal operations, whereby naturally in emergency abdominal operations the rate was higher (7.7%) than in elective surgery (3.8%). Eight postoperative bronchus stump fistulae and eleven out of the twenty-five gastrointestinal anastomotic dehiscences could be closed using a fibrin clot. Furthermore, fibrin occlusion of the pancreatic duct following Whipple's operation for the protection of the pancreatic-digestive anastomosis (n = 67) has turned out to be a success, since no postoperative pancreatic fistulae occurred, which resulted in the very low mortality rate of 1.5%. One more indication for fibrin sealing was the prevention of postoperative lymph fistulae by additional wound sealing (n = 123) and the fibrin occlusion of these fistulae (n = 18); the postoperative lymph fistulae rate amounted to only 3.3%. All 4 cases, as well as 14 other cases of existing lymph fistulae were healed quickly by instillation of fibrin. These relatively new, partly endoscopic, procedures using fibrin sealing proved to be very successful, because on the one hand postoperative fistulae could be largely avoided and on the other hand they could be treated without further operation.