Abstract
A series is reported of 115 patients submitted to laparoscopy in two poorly equipped hospitals in Chad and Tanzania, with the indications for this diagnostic procedure and the findings in every patient. Laparoscopy was judged to have been definitively diagnostic in 74 (64.3%) and useful but not diagnostic in 30 (26.0%) of the 115 patients. On the grounds of the laparoscopic picture 24 patients (20.9%) underwent surgery and the other 91 (79.0%) received medical therapy. No serious complications ensued with any of the 115 cases studied.
Laparoscopy is a safe procedure with a satisfactory diagnostic success rate. We would recommend wider use of this diagnostic tool in small hospitals in developing countries where laboratory facilities are usually inadequate.
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