Abdominal adhesion and laparoscopy in liver diseases

Summary  Abdominal adhesions constitute a problem frequently met while performing a laparoscopic examination in hepatic diseases. We have carried out a retrospective study to evaluate the possibility to observe the liver when abdominal adhesions are present, and a prospective study on the influence of adhesions as a source of pain suffered during laparoscopy. The first study showed the major obstacles we came across while observing the right lobe of the liver, especially after previous bile ducts surgery. However, adhesions need not be considered a hindrance to the examination in most cases. The second study revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the raising and intensity of pain between patients with adhesions and those without.