[Diagnostic laparoscopy within the scope of appendicitis treatment. East German Working Group "Outcome Assessment and Quality Assurance in Surgery" of the CAQ of the German Society of Surgery].

The diagnostic laparoscopy represents a special technique with high impact for differential diagnosis especially in patients with chronic recurrent pain in the right lower abdomen. The East-German multicentric trial confirmed the actual trend of increasing importance of the laparoscopic method especially in patients with unclear abdominal findings. In case of surgical treatment because of chronic appendicitis in 61.7% (n = 370) of all these cases an laparoscopic procedure was preferred. Unclear abdominal findings were treated in 73.7% (n = 205) laparoscopically. In case of acute appendicitis in 72.2% (n = 2934) the open procedure was preferred. The diagnostic laparoscopy can avoid the overlook of findings requiring therapy. The consequent laparoscopic approach allows to achieve a decreased rate of non necessary laparotomies as well as non detected findings requiring surgery. The rate of gynaecological findings was 16.2% (n = 184) of all women who underwent diagnostic laparoscopy versus 6.4% who underwent open appendectomy (n = 116).