Background: Laparoscopy is commonly used for number of abdominal surgical diseases. It requires regular supply of carbon dioxide cylinders. This is a big hindrance in remote area due to poor connectivity and logistic reasons. This study is carried out to establish the safety of gas used in our study.
Methods: Between June 2009 to Apr 2011, 30 laparoscopic surgeries were performed using gas ejected from muffler of oxygen concentrator. The technicality, conversions, operative time, complications and post op recovery were analysed.
Result: 30 patients (17 females and 13 males) underwent laparoscopic surgeries. 24 cases were done using gas ejected from muffler of oxygen concentrator. 24 underwent lap cholecystectomy, 02 lap varicocoelectomy, 03 appendectomy and 01 tubectomy. Mean duration of surgery was 75.38 minutes. Post op fever was seen in 10% cases. Vomiting / nausea were seen in 23.3% cases. 16.6% patients experienced shoulder pain. 16.6% patients had moderate pain (verbal rating scale- 4 to 7) on 2nd POD. No serious complications and post op infections were seen.
Conclusion: Gas used for pneumoperitoneum in our study is cheap, safe and readily available. Moreover it is safer than air due to double filtration and low oxygen concentration. In a low resource setting it can be used if carbon dioxide is not available.
