Value of laparoscopy in hepatobiliary disease.

A prospective study was made of the value of laparoscopy in hepatobiliary disease. The pathology was accurately diagnosed by laparoscopy alone in 21 out of 33 consecutive cases of cholestatic jaundice (36% failure rate). Laparoscopy gave a slightly better diagnostic yield for secondary tumour deposits than hepatic scintiscanning, and the simultaneous use of both procedures reduced the false negative rate to 2/18 (11%). Laparoscopic liver biopsy was superior to blind percutaneous biopsy in the retrieval of secondary malignant tissue, but it had no obvious advantage over the latter when performed on patients with diffuse disease (cirrhosis) or primary hepatic tumours.