[Laparoscopic therapy of mechanical or adhesion ileus of the small intestine--preliminary results].

Small bowel ileus is often caused by adhesions and might be treated by laparoscopic adhesiolysis. Therefore we tried to select those cases of ileus by anamnesis, clinical investigation, sonography and X-ray scan. 25 out of 74 patients with small bowel ileus were supposed to have ileus caused by adhesions and were further diagnosed by laparoscopy: 15 patients were operated laparoscopically, 5 were operated conventionally after diagnostic laparoscopy and 3 converted into open operation after laparoscopic start (conversion rate 12%). 2 patients showed ileus due to gastrointestinal infection without necessity of operation. Out of 49 (66.2%) ileus-patients operated conventionally 5 might have been operated laparoscopically. Thus, 15 of our patients with ileus of the small bowel (20.3%) were treated laparoscopically. Based on these results we suppose that following a proper selection about 25% of small bowel ileus can be treated adequately by laparoscopic adhesiolysis.