title: Early experience in laparoscopic colectomy for refractory colitis in children.
abstract: There is limited literature endorsing the laparoscopic approach for the treatment of refractory colitis in children. We report our experiences of paediatric laparoscopic colectomies performed for ulcerative colitis. A retrospective review over a three year period was undertaken. Operative time, length of stay, post-operative analgesia, time to commencement of diet, and complications were recorded. Nine laparoscopic colectomies were performed. Median operative time was 320 minutes (range--240-475). Mean time to commencement of full diet was 3.9 days (range 2-8). Median length of stay was 6 days (range--5-16). In our experience, laparoscopic colectomy in children is a feasible and superior method to open colectomy and in our opinion, facilitates further restorative procedures and will become the default method of treatment in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Surgery, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12. lindastephens@eircom.net
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gillick
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D003082:Colectomy / Q000379:methods*; D003092:Colitis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D061646:Operative Time; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome