Role of laparoscopy in diagnosis of acute nonspecific abdominal pain

Background Acute nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) is frequently encountered in the daily medical practice. This prospective study was performed to elucidate the role of early laparoscopy in the management of NSAP and to compare it with active clinical observation in such cases. Patients and methods A total of 100 cases with acute NSAP were randomly divided into two groups: early diagnostic laparoscopy (EDL) group included 50 cases who underwent EDL, and observational group included the remaining 50 cases who were closely observed. Outcome measures included the definitive diagnosis, operative time, duration of hospitalization, and postoperative morbidity. Results No statistically significant difference was noticed between the study groups regarding demographics. However, the duration of symptoms showed significant prolongation in the observation group. Regarding the final definitive diagnosis, no significant difference was noticed between the two groups (P