title: Role of laparoscopy in non-trauma emergency pediatric surgery: a 5-year, single center experience a retrospective descriptive study with literature review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although laparoscopy is rapidly becoming the abdominal surgical modality of choice in adults, there are obstacles to its use in children. We analyzed our experience with pediatric laparoscopic surgery over the past 5 years, with particular emphasis on emergency procedures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We retrospectively evaluated the records of patients aged <14 years who had undergone laparoscopic procedures for non-trauma emergency conditions at our institution from January 2006 to December 2010. The clinical parameters evaluated included operation time, total length of hospital stay, and postoperative complications.During the 5-year study period, 482 laparoscopic procedures were performed on patients aged <14 years, comprising 300 emergency and 182 elective operations. The majority of procedures were laparoscopic appendectomies, with most of the others being resections of ovarian cysts or Meckel's diverticulae, or adhesiolyses. We observed an improvement in outcomes over the 5-year period, as shown by shorter operation times and shorter postoperative hospital stays. The numbers of laparoscopic procedures performed increased over time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pediatric laparoscopic surgery for emergency conditions provides excellent results, including better exposure and cosmetic outcomes than laparotomy. At our institution, the numbers and types of laparoscopic procedures performed have increased over time, and the outcomes of laparoscopic procedures have improved.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Surgery Department, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, 3050, Qatar. Tariq2c@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Tariq O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hayati
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001062:Appendectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008467:Meckel Diverticulum / Q000601:surgery*; D061646:Operative Time; D010048:Ovarian Cysts / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D016896:Treatment Outcome