Laparoscopic treatment of caecal diverticulitis.

Right-sided diverticulitis is difficult to distinguish from other sources of right-sided abdominal pain and, in particular, is frequently indistinguishable from acute appendicitis preoperatively. Because of the problems concerning preoperative diagnosis and controversies in the management, the choice of the best therapy on the surgeon's part is still open. A total of 1150 patients with a clinical diagnosis of right acute abdomen observed in our surgical department from 1995 to 2003 was analysed.

Gallstone ileus in patient with Crohn's disease: report of a clinical observation.

Gallstone ileus is an uncommon form of bowel obstruction, related in the majority of cases to a cholecystoenteric fistula. In patients with Crohn's disease the stone can obstruct the diseased bowel. We report a case of gallstone ileus in a patient with Crohn's disease.

Laparoscopic treatment of pancreatic insulinoma.

Laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasonography (LUS) have been proposed for the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic insulinoma. We present for cases of pancreatic insulinoma approached by laparoscopy guided by LUS. In three cases, insulinomas were in the pancreatic body and in one case in the pancreatic head.

Is laparoscopic sonography a reliable and sensitive procedure for staging colorectal cancer? A comparative study.

Background: Laparoscopic colectomy has developed rapidly with the explosion of technology. In most cases, laparoscopic resection is performed for colorectal cancer. Intraoperative staging during laparoscopic procedure is limited.

Laparoscopic compared with open appendicectomy for acute appendicitis: a prospective study.

Objective: To assess the benefits of laparoscopic appendicectomy over open appendicectomy and to evaluate the impact of the severity of appendicitis and of peritonitis on the advantages of the laparoscopic approach.

Design: Prospective unrandomised study.

Setting: University hospital, Italy.