Introduction.

Nonspecific acute abdominal pain is frequent in women of childbearing age, presenting difficulty in the diagnosis due to the gyneco-obstetric origin.

Laparoscopy is a diagnostic method that offers 100% sensitivity in several pathologies, with a short recovery time, brief hospital stay and the possibility of resolving most cases of acute abdomen.

Materials and methods.

A retrospective search was conducted at the Central Military Hospital, Bogotá, Colombia, of female patients of childbearing age who underwent diagnostic laparoscopy for acute abdomen and suspected surgical pathology in the period 2013-2014.

Results.

We identified 108 women of childbearing age presenting with acute abdominal pain and suspicion of surgical pathology, finding that 62.07% of the patients had a surgical pathology, with a median age of 25 years, appendicitis being 94.02% (63/67) of the cases, followed by appendicular phlegmon in 2.98% (2/67) and with a median time in 24 hours (p5% 5 hours - p95% 96 hours).

A statistically significant difference was found between the patients with surgical versus non-surgical pathologies in the leukocyte count, neutrophils and CRP. The only clinical variable with a statistically significant difference between the two groups was fever, being present more frequently in the non-surgical patients. Conclusion. Diagnostic laparoscopy is useful in women of childbearing age with acute abdominal pain with leukocytosis, neutrophilia and elevated CRP, with a very low risk of morbidity.

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