Pneumoperitoneum Secondary to Laparoscopic Hysterectomy. A Case Report
Keywords:
pneumoperitoneum; post-laparoscopic pneumoperitoneum; conservative treatment of pneumoperitoneum; gynecological laparoscopic surgeryAbstract
Pneumoperitoneum is the presence of free gas in the abdominal cavity. When it occurs after a conventional or laparoscopic surgery, it is considered a pathological situation most frequently caused by hollow viscera perforation. This almost always implies an emergency or surgical intervention, but there are etiologies that do not require emergency management or procedure. For the completion of this report, it was performed a systematic-critical review of post-laparoscopic surgery pneumoperitoneum caused by hollow viscera perforation reported on websites such as PubMed, SciELO, LILACS, and Elservier between 2020 and 2025. We present the case of a patient with postsurgical pneumoperitoneum after laparoscopic hysterectomy by uterine fibroma. She came complaining of epigastric and bilateral shoulder pain. Chest X-ray findings and clinical evaluation reveled air in the abdominal cavity. The patient showed favorable progress following conservative management at the Centro Nacional de Cirugía de Mínimo Acceso (National Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery) in Havana, Cuba, with no need of surgery. Pneumoperitoneum is not a frequently complication after laparoscopic surgery. The diagnosis, clinical interpretation and imaging findings allowed for non-surgical therapeutic procedures and offered a good prognosis for the patient's health.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Angélica Gálvez-del-Toro, Jorge Gerardo Pereira-Fraga, Frank Abel Acosta-González
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