title: The role of diagnostic laparoscopy in detecting minimal peritoneal metastatic deposits in patients with pancreatic cancer scheduled for curative resection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive disease usually diagnosed at an advanced stage. Modern computed tomography can define the subgroup of operable patients. However, minimal peritoneal deposits can be undetected even by modern computed tomography protocols.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To diagnose those patients who are not operable because of a peritoneal spread using diagnostic laparoscopy (DL), thus avoiding unnecessary laparotomies.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was conducted on 52 consecutive patients with PC scheduled for curative pancreatic surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 52 patients who underwent DL, peritoneal spread was diagnosed in 5 patients and these patients were denied surgery. Laparoscopy did not detect 2 other patients with peritoneal spread.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the added value of DL in patients with PC is small (around 10% in our series), considering the minimal morbidity and costs attributed to this procedure, we believe that it should be adopted as a routine approach.
authors.affiliation: Division of Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. ronirislavy@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lavy
authors.forename: Inbar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gatot
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Markon
authors.forename: Zahar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shapira
authors.forename: Bar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chikman
authors.forename: Laurian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Copel
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halevy
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D010534:Peritoneal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary; D012189:Retrospective Studies