Diagnostic peritoneal lavage in evaluation of acute abdominal disease.

Diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL) is an established procedure in evaluation of trauma victims but is less well established for use in patients suspected of having acute intra-abdominal disease. Twenty-six seriously ill patients at our institution who had DPL for acute intra-abdominal disease form the basis of this report. Use of DPL indicated sepsis in ten patients; in seven of the ten, findings were confirmed at celiotomy or autopsy. Only one of the ten survived without laparotomy or confirmatory necropsy indicating the result of DPL had been false-positive. Sepsis was not indicated by DPL in 16 patients. Fourteen patients appeared to have true-negative results confirmed by operation (three patients), autopsy (four patients), or survival longer than two weeks (seven patients). Complications occurred in one patient whose DPL showed sepsis. Two patients with negative results of DPL died within two weeks of examination without confirmatory operation or autopsy and could not be evaluated. We therefore, consider the overall diagnostic accuracy in our patient group to be 95%. We recommend the use of DPL in patients suspected of an acute intra-abdominal disease process who are unable to undergo other evaluation for reasons such as critical illness.