Myth And Facts About The Evolving Role of Laparoscopic Splenectomy In Isolated High Grades Splenic Injuries In Hemodynamically Stable Patients With Blunt Abdominal Trauma. Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Spleen is the most common intra-abdominal organ injury in blunt abdominal trauma. Splenectomy (open or laparoscopic) is the role in treatment of severe injuries of spleen or after failure of conservative treatment.Aim of the work: Compare the outcomes between open versus laparoscopic in high grade splenic injuries.Methods: This study includes 70 patients with various grades of splenic injuries in abdominal trauma. The patients were 15 years and older. They were categorized into two groups: open splenectomy group (35 patients) and laparoscopic splenectomy group (35 patients). The study was performed from January, 2012 to July 2017. Variables included demographics data, splenic injury graded by computerized tomography, duration of operation (in minutes), intra-operative blood loss (in ml), and intraoperative blood transfusion, length of hospital stay (in days), complications and mortality.Results: There was no significant difference or association between groups as regard age, sex and causes of splenic injury (p=0.374, 0.41, 0.38).Most cases were under 35 years old male patients exposed to motor car accidents. As regard intraoperative data, no statistically significant difference between both groups except for blood loss and transfusion that were statistically significant to the open group (p=0.039*).In the laparoscopic group, operational time was longer than open but no statistically significant (p=0.11).as regard conversion, we found that 14% of laparoscopic group (5 cases) had conversion. Most cases operated by laparoscopic approach were in grade III, IV with no cases tried in grade V (p=0.06). No statistically significant difference between both groups as regard postoperative variables except Pain (p=0.0003), and hospital stay(p=0.00) that were significantly longer among open group.The immediate postoperative complications showed that Wound infection, Missed injuries, pancreatic fistula and ileus were significantly higher among open group (p=0.00, 0.006, 0.02, 0.0004).The delayed postoperative complications where Incisional hernia (p=0.001) and Adhesive intestinal obstruction (p=0.00) were significantly associated with open group.Conclusion: In high-grade splenic injuries patients, this study found that laparoscopic splenectomy is safe.