Palliative Laparoscopic Surgery for Abdominal Malignancies

Laparoscopic surgery represents a path of progress for patients with advanced abdominal malignancies. Diagnostic laparoscopy allows accurate disease staging and can confirm the unresectable nature of lesions, usually by demonstrating occult hepatic metastases. Therapeutic laparoscopy authorizes palliative bypass procedures and limits resections that relieve clinical symptoms in poor condition patients while avoiding the secondary effects of parietal incisions. In accordance with medical ethics, laparoscopic techniques advantageously reduce the amount of time required for hospitalization of patients with a short life expectancy. The first reports are promising, but these high-tech procedures require professional training and must be assessed by scientific evaluation in terms of feasibility, safety, benefits to patients, and health costs.