Staging Laparoscopy

Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) achieves the best results for patients if the surgeons are able to remove all the abnormal tissue during CRS and HIPEC. In most cases what stops the surgeons removing all the abnormal tissue is if the small bowel is heavily involved. Unfortunately scans don’t always detect the extent of small bowel involvement and therefore a direct visualisation of the abdominal and pelvic cavities is indicated to establish if the patient will benefit from CRS and HIPEC. A laparoscopy is organised to assess and document the extent of peritoneal disease and this helps the surgical team to establish if CRS and HIPEC will be beneficial and also gives the chance to tell the patient and their family the extent of the proposed operation.