Abstract
Introduction
Abdominal adhesions are a frequent reason for chronic abdominal pain. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the evidence of performing laparoscopic adhesiolysis as a treatment for patients with chronic abdominal pain.
Methods
Medline, Embase, and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for trials performing lysis of adhesions on patients suffering from chronic abdominal pain. Clinical studies on patients being treated for chronic abdominal pain with surgical adhesiolysis were included. The main outcome of the study was the postoperative assessment of symptoms. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used for bias assessment of non-randomized studies while the Jadad score was used for the randomized controlled trials.
Results
A total of 25 studies were identified evaluating the efficacy of adhesiolysis in 1281 patients suffering from chronic abdominal pain. A total of 22 trials were identified as case-series and included no control group. Three studies were identified as randomized controlled trials (RCT). A benefit of the intervention varied from 16 to 88 % in the non-randomized studies, with the majority reporting pain relief in more than 50 % of their patients. However, analysis indicated a high risk of bias in most of the studies. The RCTs also showed variance, with one study showing benefit, one study showing benefit only in a subgroup in which the patients had dense and vascularized adhesions, and one study showed no difference between the intervention and control group.
Conclusion
The identified studies showed promising but preliminary results of laparoscopic adhesiolysis as a treatment of chronic abdominal pain. The evidence for laparoscopic adhesiolysis is not sufficient to make definitive conclusions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lavonius M et al (1999) Laparoscopy for chronic abdominal pain. Surg Laparosc Endosc 9(1):42–44
Paajanen H, Julkunen K, Waris H (2005) Laparoscopy in chronic abdominal pain: a prospective nonrandomized long-term follow-up study. J Clin Gastroenterol 39(2):110–114
Onders RP, Mittendorf EA, Nussbaum MS (2003) Utility of laparoscopy in chronic abdominal pain. Surgery 134(4):549–554
Kresch AJ et al (1984) Laparoscopy in 100 women with chronic pelvic pain. Obstet Gynecol 64(5):672–674
Rapkin AJ (1986) Adhesions and pelvic pain: a retrospective study. Obstet Gynecol 68(1):13–5
Richard PG et al. (2013) Burden of adhesions in abdominal and pelvic surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ (Online) 347(7929)
Lehmann-Willenbrock E, Mecke H, Riedel HH (1990) Sequelae of appendectomy, with special reference to intra-abdominal adhesions, chronic abdominal pain, and infertility. Gynecol Obstet Investig 29(4):241–245
Ikard RW (1992) There is no current indication for laparoscopic adhesiolysis to treat abdominal pain. South Med J 85(10):939–40
Diamond MP et al (1987) Adhesion reformation and de novo adhesion formation after reproductive pelvic surgery. Fertil Steril 47(5):864–6
Postoperative adhesion development after operative laparoscopy: evaluation at early second-look procedures (1991) Operative Laparoscopy Study Group. Fertil Steril 55(4): p. 700–4
Chen MD, TG, Reynolds HT et al. (1998) Laparoscopy versus laparotomy: an evaluation of adhesion formation after pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy in a porcine model. Am J Obstet Gynecol 178: p. 499–503
Krähenbühl L et al (1998) Experimental study of adhesion formation in open and laparoscopic fundoplication. Br J Surg 85(6):826–830
Moher D et al. (2009) Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. BMJ 339
Gerner-Rasmussen J, Gogenur I, Burcharth J (2014) The usefulness of adhesiolysis on chronic pain. Available from: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42014009095
Greenhalgh T, Peacock R (2005) Effectiveness and efficiency of search methods in systematic reviews of complex evidence: audit of primary sources. BMJ 331(7524):1064–1065
Higgins J, Green S (2011) Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions Version 5.1.0 (updated March 2011). The Cochrane Collaboration
Wells G et al. (2013) The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses. Available from: http://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp
Jadad AR et al (1996) Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: is blinding necessary? Control Clin Trials 17(1):1–12
Peters AA et al (1992) A randomized clinical trial on the benefit of adhesiolysis in patients with intraperitoneal adhesions and chronic pelvic pain. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 99(1):59–62
Swank DJ et al (2003) Laparoscopic adhesiolysis in patients with chronic abdominal pain: a blinded randomised controlled multi-centre trial. Lancet 361(9365):1247–1251
Keltz MD, Gera PS, Olive DL (2006) Prospective randomized trial of right-sided paracolic adhesiolysis for chronic pelvic pain. JSLS : J Soc Laparoendosc Surg / Soc Laparoendosc Surg 10(4):443–446
Chan CLK, Wood C (1985) Pelvic adhesiolysis—the assessment of symptom relief by 100 patients. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 25(4):295–298
Daniell JF (1989) Laparoscopic enterolysis for chronic abdominal pain. J Gynecol Surg 5(1):61–66
Sutton C, Macdonald R (1990) Laser laparoscopic adhesiolysis. J Gynecol Surg 6(3):155–159
Khaitan L et al (2003) Results after laparoscopic lysis of adhesions and placement of Seprafilm for intractable abdominal pain. Surg Endosc Interv Tech 17(2):247–253
Saravelos HG, Li TC, Cooke ID (1995) An analysis of the outcome of microsurgical and laparoscopic adhesiolysis for chronic pelvic pain. Hum Reprod 10(11):2895–2901
Steege JF, Stout AL (1991) Resolution of chronic pelvic pain after laparoscopic lysis of adhesions. Am J Obstet Gynecol 165(2):278–283
Fayez JA, Clark RR (1994) Operative laparoscopy for the treatment of localized chronic pelvic-abdominal pain caused by postoperative adhesions. J Gynecol Surg 10(2):79–83
Nezhat FR et al (2000) Laparoscopic adhesiolysis and relief of chronic pelvic pain. JSLS : J Soc Laparoendosc Surg / Soc Laparoendosc Surg 4(4):281–285
Francois Y et al (1994) Postoperative adhesive peritoneal disease. Laparoscopic treatment. Surg Endosc 8(7):781–783
Freys SM et al (1994) Laparoscopic adhesiolysis. Surg Endosc 8(10):1202–1207
Mueller MD et al (1995) An evaluation of laparoscopic adhesiolysis in patients with chronic abdominal pain. Surg Endosc 9(7):802–804
Bremers AJA et al (2000) Laparoscopic adhesiolysis for chronic abdominal pain: an objective assessment. J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech - Part A 10(4):199–202
Malik E et al (2000) Subjective evaluation of the therapeutic value of laparoscopic adhesiolysis: a retrospective analysis. Surg Endosc 14(1):79–81
Schietroma M et al (2001) The role of laparoscopic adhesiolysis in chronic abdominal pain. Minerva Chir 56(5):461–465
Swank DJ et al (2003) A prospective analysis of predictive factors on the results of laparoscopic adhesiolysis in patients with chronic abdominal pain. Surg Laparosc Endosc Percutaneous Tech 13(2):88–94
McClain GD et al (2011) Diagnostic laparoscopy and adhesiolysis: does it help with complex abdominal and pelvic pain syndrome (CAPPS) in general surgery? J Soc Laparoendosc Surg 15(1):1–5
Miller K, Mayer E, Moritz E (1996) The role of laparoscopy in chronic and recurrent abdominal pain. Am J Surg 172(4):353–6, discussion 356–7
Shayani V, Siegert C, Favia P (2002) The role of laparoscopic adhesiolysis in the treatment of patients with chronic abdominal pain or recurrent bowel obstruction. JSLS : J Soc Laparoendosc Surg / Soc Laparoendosc Surg 6(2):111–114
Dunker MS et al (2004) Long-term outcomes and quality of life after laparoscopic adhesiolysis for chronic abdominal pain. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc 11(1):36–41
Hebbar S, Chawla C (2005) Role of laparoscopy in evaluation of chronic pelvic pain. J Minim Access Surg 1(3):116–20
Pitt T et al (2008) Diagnostic laparoscopy for chronic abdominal pain after gastric bypass. Surg Obes Relat Dis 4(3):394–398
Kligman I et al (1993) Immunohistochemical demonstration of nerve fibers in pelvic adhesions. Obstet Gynecol 82(4 Pt 1):566–8
Klingensmith ME, Soybel DI, Brooks DC (1996) Laparoscopy for chronic abdominal pain. Surg Endosc 10(11):1085–1087
Roman H et al. (2009) Why laparoscopic adhesiolysis should not be the victim of a single randomized clinical trial. Am J Obstet Gynecol 200(2): p. 136.e1-4
Compliance with ethical standards
Funding
No funding has been used for this study.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Human and animal rights and informed consent
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Author contributions
Study conception and design were contributed by Gerner-Rasmussen, Burcharth, and Gögenur. Acquisition of the data was contributed by Gerner-Rasmussen and Burcharth. Analysis and interpretation of the data were contributed by Gerner-Rasmussen, Burcharth, and Gögenur. Drafting of manuscript was contributed by Gerner-Rasmussen. Critical revision of the manuscript was contributed by Gerner-Rasmussen, Burcharth, and Gögenur.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gerner-Rasmussen, J., Burcharth, J. & Gögenur, I. The efficacy of adhesiolysis on chronic abdominal pain: a systematic review. Langenbecks Arch Surg 400, 567–576 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-015-1316-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-015-1316-9