title: Laparoscopic approach to symptomatic meckel diverticulum in adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Meckel diverticulum (MD) is the most common congenital gastrointestinal malformation found in approximately 2% of the general population. MD manifests in adults as gastrointestinal bleeding, bowel obstruction, intussusception, or perforation in <5% of cases. There is no consensus on the ideal management strategy in symptomatic MD. Therefore, we searched the literature to highlight the role of laparoscopy in diagnosing and treating symptomatic MD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, Ovid, and Cochrane data search engines looking for articles containing terms such as Meckel diverticulum, ectopic gastric mucosa, laparoscopic, technetium 99m pertechnetate, and acute management. We included articles reporting on case series in the English language on adult patients only and reporting on laparoscopic approach in the management of symptomatic MD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 5 articles reporting on 35 cases were found. We report on the pooled data from these series with emphasis on number of patients, age, male to female ratio, length of stay, conversion to open procedure, method of resection, complications, first presentation, and confirmation of diagnosis preoperatively. We also compare the results of laparoscopic versus open approaches mentioned in the literature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The laparoscopic approach was found to be effective as a diagnostic and therapeutic modality in patients with symptomatic MD; however, its adoption as the gold standard still needs further studies with larger patient numbers.
authors.affiliation: General Surgery Division, American Universiity of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Maen Abul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hosn
authors.affiliation: General Surgery Division, American Universiity of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Moustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lakis
authors.affiliation: Clinical Surgery Department, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Walid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Faraj
authors.affiliation: Clinical Surgery Department, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Ghattas
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Khoury
authors.affiliation: General Surgery Division, American Universiity of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Samer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Diba
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008467:Meckel Diverticulum / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: Acute abdomen; Laparoscopic; Meckel diverticulum; Stapler; Technetium scan