Author(s)

Zeiad S. Gad, Waheed Y. Gareer, Osama A. El-Malt, Hussein O. Soliman^*, Mohamed G. Abdel Menem, Maher H. Ibraheem

Surgical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

Background: Surgical resection of upper gastrointestinal malignancies occasionally carries substantial morbidity due to inaccurate pre-operative staging. The potential to prevent needless laparotomy by means of precise staging is the pouring force behind the use of diagnostic laparoscopy (DL). Objective: To assess the role of laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) in proper staging of upper gastro intestinal malignancies, and in potential palliation in advanced cases for pain (by neurolytic celiac plexus block) or gastric outlet obstruction (by laparoscopic bypass surgery). Study design: In this prospective study, 62 patients with lower esophageal, gastric and peri-pancreatic carcinomas were joined after written informed consent. All patients were examined with laparoscopy and LUS with the help of frozen section analysis to any doubtful metastatic site, peritoneal fluid and ascitic fluid analysis. Results: DL helped us to avoid needless laparotomy in 22.5% of patients, reducing its post-operative complications, hospital stay and cost. DL also helped us to do palliative management either in the form of gastric bypass or laparoscopic celiac plexus block. Conclusion: we praise the use of DL as a safe, effective and complimentary method to the other routine imaging modalities, in proper staging and palliation for upper gastrointestinal malignancies.

Laparoscopic Palliation, Laparoscopic Ultrasound (LUS), Laparotomy, Staging Laparoscopy (SL), Upper Gastrointestinal Malignancies

Gad, Z. , Gareer, W. , El-Malt, O. , Soliman, H. , Menem, M. and Ibraheem, M. (2017) The Role of Laparoscopy and Laparoscopic Ultrasound in Staging and in Palliation of Upper Gastro-Intestinal Malignancies: The Egyptian National Cancer Institute Experience. Journal of Cancer Therapy, 8, 464-471. doi: 10.4236/jct.2017.85040.