Laparoscopic hepatopexy: a new surgical approach to hepatoptosis in an 11-year-old boy.

We report a case of hepatoptosis in an 11-year-old boy with a longstanding history of intermittent abdominal pain, nausea, and flatulence. The diagnosis of hepatoptosis was established by upper gastrointestinal series, abdominal ultrasound, and contrast enema so that the working diagnosis of malrotation or situs inversus could be excluded. The patient underwent laparoscopic hepatopexy with fixation of the ligamentum falciforme hepatis to the right diaphragm and fixation of the ligamentum teres hepatis with the distal part of the ligamentum falciforme hepatis to the anterior abdominal wall. We describe a new operative procedure for hepatoptosis and focus on this rare disease.