[LAPAROSCOPIC APPENDECTOMY: EXPERIENCE IN THIRTY CASES]
Between September 1994 and February 1997, 30 patients with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis were subject of laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) at the "Stella Maris" Clinic in Lima - Peru. Only one conversion to an open procedure was practiced to a 69 years old woman with an appendiculate plastron. Out of the other 29 LA cases, 17 were women (58.6%) and 12 were men (41.4%) with an average age of 23 years, average surgery time of 94 minutes, average time of restablishment of food in-take 15 hr. and average post-operation time of hospitalization 27,1 hr. The anatomo-pathologic diagnosis revealed 11 cases of acute appendicitis, 1 case of suppurative acute appendicitis, 6 cases of acute appendicitis + peritonitis, 1 case of chronic periappendicitis, 6 cases of vascular congestion and/or follicular hyperplasia. There were also reported 3 cases of vascular congestion and/or follicular hyperplasia associated to gynecological pathologies that were solved laparoscopycally. A minor wound infection was registered as a post-operative complication. Thus, it is concluded that the LA is a save method of low morbidity, applicable to children, very advantageous in women in fertile age, in obese or fat patients, in the cases of diagnostic doubt and in patients with complicated appendicitis.