Emergency laparoscopic surgery.

The acute abdomen continues to demand a large proportion of the general surgeon's workload. Recent studies have demonstrated that management errors can be significantly reduced using selective laparoscopy and this should now become routine practice. The continuing advances in laparoscopic surgery that permit many emergency procedures to be performed by this route provide increased impetus for a combined approach using diagnostic and therapeutic laparoscopy for the management of the acute abdomen. Results of current studies must be awaited before the exact role of emergency laparoscopic surgery can be defined, but early reports suggest several advantages in using laparoscopy to manage conditions such as acute appendicitis, perforated peptic ulcer and gynaecological emergencies.