Role of laparoscope in Staging and Palliation of upper Gastro-Intestinal Malignancies.

Background: In upper GIT malignancies, staging laparoscopy (SL) plays an important role. It is particularly accurate in detecting peritoneal seeding and hepatic metastases that imaging techniques cannot detect. A short SL conducted right before the proposed surgical procedure to confirm operability has been found to be both safe and efficient, and it doesn't have to be done separately. Objective: The purpose of this research is to discuss the function of the laparoscope in proper staging of upper gastro-intestinal malignancies. Patients and Methods: This prospective, randomized research has been performed at the Department of General Surgery, Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt. It included 20 adult with pathologically proven malignancies of the lower oesophagus, stomach, or peripancreas. Results: Total results involved 20 patients of upper GIT cancer presented to the out-patient clinic of General Surgery Department Al-Azhar University Hospitals showed that from 20 patient were thought to be all operable only 15 (75%) were found to be operable and the rest 5 cases (25%) were found to be not. There were 3 (15%) cases of lower esophageal malignancies two (10%) of them were resectable and the another (5%) was not. Stomach malignancies accounted for 15 (75%) of the patients, with 3 (15%) of them being unresectable. Out of two patients with duodenal malignancies, only one (5%) has been found to be unresectable. Conclusion: Stagin Laparoscopy assisted in the avoidance of laparotomy in a significant proportion of patients with advanced GI malignancies. The DL morbidity was tolerable.