Abstract

Chronic idiopathic pain syndromes are the most challenging to thing to treat among all age groups. Even after these patients have had multiple diagnostic tests, their pain continues to be an obstacle to all established diagnostic and treatment approaches. Aims and Objectives: We aim to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy of laparoscopy in the management of such patients in this prospective study. Materials and methods: Thirty five patients with chronic pain abdomen were included in this study. The pain in all these patients for >3 months duration were included. Pain of shorter duration and patients less than 14 years of age were excluded from the study. All patients were subjected to diagnostic laparoscopy. The results were tabulated and analyzed. Results: Females were more affected and the most common site of pain being the peri-umbilical region. A definitive diagnosis was made per-operatively in 29 patients (82.85%) while in the remaining 6 (17.14%), no obvious pathology was detected. The most common findings in our study was post-operative adhesions (51.42%), followed by recurrent appendicitis (14.28%), Carcinoma (5.71%), Mesenteric lymphadenopathy and Tuberculosis (2.85% each). Pain assessment done at 1 month follow up showed pain relief in 85.7% and 3 month follow up showed pain relief in 70% of patients. Conclusion: Post-operative adhesions form a majority of cause for causing chronic pain abdomen. Diagnostic laparoscopy is a safe and effective modality for the diagnostic and therapeutic management of such patients.

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