Diagnostic laparoscopy: an update.

Diagnostic laparoscopy has been in use since the last century. Advances in technology, coupled with increasing evidence of enhanced outcomes following its use, have renewed interest in this modality. Diagnostic laparoscopy guides surgeons in preventing unnecessary laparotomies in settings of acute abdomen, oncologists for accurate staging of malignancies from the esophagus to the colon, and hepatologists in the evaluation of acute as well as chronic liver diseases. Prospective clinical studies are awaited that will allow experimental technological advances, refining the methods of diagnostic laparoscopy, to be translated into more widespread use.