Laparoscopy using a simplified open technique. A review of 585 cases.

Laparoscopy was carried out using a simplified open method on 585 patients. In the group, 173 (29.5%) had undergone a previous laparoscopy or laparotomy, 28 (4.8%) suffered from gross obesity and 1 patient had a large umbilical hernia. Laparoscopy was diagnostic in 216 (37%) patients and operative in 369 (63%). In this series there were no technical failures or major complications; the incidence of minor complications was 2.7%. The above results seem to suggest that open laparoscopy compared to the closed method may offer the advantage of a lack of contraindications secondary to previous surgery, no risk of failure with unintended laparotomy and, possibly, decreased postoperative discomfort. A larger, randomized series to settle the controversy between closed and open laparoscopy regarding the safety differences between the two approaches may result in more widespread use of the open technique.