Background: It is considered that laparoscopic surgery is associated with a much lower rate of postoperative formation of adhesions than open surgery. This meta-analysis assessed the incidence of adhesion-related readmissions and surgery for adhesive small bowel obstruction (SBO) in patients who underwent laparoscopic or open colorectal surgery.
Methods: Multiple comprehensive databases were searched systematically to identify relevant studies and meta-analysis was done.
Results: Meta-analysis showed that laparoscopic surgery was associated with a lower rate of adhesive SBO, both for randomized clinical trials (relative risk [RR] .26, 95% confidence interval [CI] .10 to .67, I(2)=41%) and nonrandomized studies (RR .49, 95% CI .32 to .76, I(2)=91%). Laparoscopic surgery was also associated with a lower rate of subsequent surgery for adhesive SBO, both for randomized clinical trials (RR .25, 95% CI .06 to .96, I(2)=0%) and nonrandomized studies (RR .56, 95% CI .33 to .94, I(2)=77%).
Conclusions: Laparoscopic colorectal surgery significantly reduced the rates of adhesive SBO and subsequent surgery for adhesive SBO, compared with open surgery.
Keywords: Adhesion; Colorectal surgery; Ileus; Laparoscopy; Small bowel obstruction.
Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.