The Trend in Laparoscopic Surgical Practice in the Riverine Ondo, Southwestern Nigeria.

Background: Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive surgical practice which is of diagnostic and therapeutic value. Aim: To determine the indications, operative findings and interventions at laparoscopy in our resource challenged settings. Methods: This was a two-year prospective study in the university of medical science teaching hospital Ondo and a private laparoscopy George and Martin laparoscopy center, Ore, Ondo State, Nigeria, between January 2020 and January 2022 which included 51 patients. Both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were followed up during this period. Data on patients' age, gender, indications for surgery, duration of hospital stay, outcome of surgery were analyzed. Data analysis was by the SPSS version 23 (IBM incorporated, Chicago, USA). Results: Fifty one patients were put under study. The median age was 42 years (mean = 41.73; age range of 8-75years). There were more females 29 (56.9%) than males 22 (43.1%). Laparoscopy was purely diagnostic (n = 6, 11.8%), therapeutic (n = 45, 88.2%), cholecystectomy (n = 11, 21.6%) and intraperitoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) (n = 11, 21.6%) were the two most common procedures done. The mean duration of surgery was 96.96 [minutes (diagnostic)], 150 [minutes (therapeutic)]; average duration of hospital stay was 2.3 (±1.7 days). Conclusion: Laparoscopic services are expanding in our center with improved facilities, females appear to benefit more in our study and the services involved the young and elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]