The role of laparoscopy to evaluate candidates for complete cytoreduction of peritoneal carcinomatosis and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy

Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of explorative laparoscopy to evaluate candidates for complete resection of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPC). Methods The database of the surgical department of the Institut Gustave Roussy was used to select 113 patients planned to undergo a maximal cytoreductive surgery combined with HIPC for PC between April 2001 and July 2003. Among them, 11 underwent an explorative laparoscopy because extent of the PC was insufficiently documented to evaluate its resectability. Patient records were retrospectively reviewed. Results Laparoscopic evaluation was successful in all 11 patients. The median operating time was 38 min (range 23–75 min). The laparoscopic examinations were well tolerated in all cases. The median length of hospital stay was 1.7 days. For three patients, the PC was as judge as unresectable. A complete resection of the PC combined with HIPC was performed in seven out of the eight patients with PC considered resectable at laparoscopy. One patient was diagnosed with more extensive disease than that as assessed by the evaluative laparoscopy. Of note, for 20% of the patients with straight away laparotomy, the complete cytoreduction was not possible. Conclusion Laparoscopic scoring of peritoneal carcinomatosis is accurate to assess the complete resectability of PC in patients for which there is inadequate or contradictory information concerning disease extent.