Use of minimally invasive surgery for the management of hollow viscus traumatic injuries

Background The objective of this study is to assess surgical outcomes following the initial use of laparoscopy versus laparotomy when managing patients with hollow viscus injuries due to trauma. Methods Using the database from the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program we identified all patients from 2015-2017 with ICD-10 Diagnosis codes for hollow viscus trauma. Types of procedures were identified by ICD-10 PCS codes. Patient outcomes were stratified by major trauma(ISS > 15) and minor trauma. Continuous variables were compared by ANOVA and categorical variables compared by Chi-Square. Analysis performed using STATA 16. Results We identified 16,284 patients that matched inclusion criteria within the study time frame. Of those, 1986 patients received a surgical intervention, 1911(96%) were open and 75(4%) were laparoscopic. In blunt trauma there were 106 diagnostic procedures, 87(82%) were open and 19(18%) were laparoscopic. There were 574 therapeutic procedures, 543(95%) were open and 31(5%) were laparoscopic. In penetrating trauma there were 223 diagnostic procedures, 215(96%) were open and 8(4%) were laparoscopic. There were 1039 therapeutic procedures for penetrating trauma, 1023(98%) were open and 16(2%) were laparoscopic. For minor trauma, mean length of stay(days) after open surgery was 5 while for laparoscopy it was 2 (p = 0.04). There were 203 complications noted in the open group and 7 in the laparoscopic group (p = 0.19). For major trauma, mean length of stay(days) after open surgery was 5 and 6 for laparoscopy p = 0.54). There were 242 complications in the open group and 1 in the laparoscopic group (p = 0.07). There was no noted significant difference noted in the disposition at discharge in either group in both major and minor trauma. Conclusions For those that required surgery for hollow viscous injury, laparoscopy appeared to be safe, had less adverse outcomes and was underutilized, particularly when only a diagnostic procedure was required.

Automated summary

This study aimed to assess the surgical outcomes of laparoscopy versus laparotomy in patients with hollow viscus injuries due to trauma. The results showed that laparoscopy was a safer and less complication-prone option compared to laparotomy, but it was underutilized.