Laparoscopic liver surgery

Abstract

Unlike other areas in pediatric surgery, minimally invasive liver resection has not gained wide popularity. The reasons for this are presumably the fear for intraoperative complications such as bleeding or gas embolism. However, improvements in laparoscopic technology and increased experience in adult surgery since the first description in 1992 (Gagner et al. 1992) now authorize laparoscopic liver resections in selected pediatric patients. As in adult surgery, the first reports regarding laparoscopic liver surgery in children concerned biopsy taking (Saenz et al. 1997) and hydatid cyst management (Khoury et al. 2000). In this chapter, we report additional experience with wedge resections and with left lateral lobectomy (bisegmentectomy 2 and 3). © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.