The role of laparoscopy in diagnosing metastasis of upper gastrointestinal tract malignancies

Background and Upper gastrointestinal tract cancers are important malignancies in the entire world. Many Diagnostic procedures are frequently used for staging gastrointestinal malignancies. Laparoscopy has emerged as a good staging modality for most gastrointestinal cancers than many other preoperative modalities. Patients with gastrointestinal tract malignancies were selected for evaluation from 2000 to 2001. After complete physical examination and paraclinical evaluations, all patients underwent laparoscopy with general anesthesia and biopsies prepared from metastasis followed by laparotomy. Data were analyzed by statistical tests. Fourty three patients, 41%female and 59% male with a mean age of 61.25±14 years were studied. Sensitivity and specifity of laparoscopy in diagnosing lymph node metastasis of upper gastrointestinal tract malignancies were 83.33%, 100% respectively. These indices were 75% and 100% in liver metastasis. Positive and negative predictive values of lymph node metastasis were 100% and 89.3% respectively and 100% and 20% in liver metastasis. Preoperative laparoscopy is an effective method for diagnosing metastasis in patients with gastrointestinal tract cancers and can prevent many unnecessary laparotomies.