ABSTRACT
Stomas are life-saving procedures dating from times immemorial in gastrointestinal pathologies. Conventionally, stomas were made by open surgery or laparotomy, which most of the time looked cosmetically poor and might have prolonged hospital stay (related to wound morbidity) and delayed return to work. In last one to two decades, laparoscopic surgery is taking over in a big way, and now can even be used to construct stomas like loop ileostomy, transverse and sigmoid colostomy, and even their reversal by laparoscopy to decrease hospital stay, wound morbidity, and facilitate early return to work. In this chapter, we will mainly discuss the laparoscopic construction of main stomas such as a loop ileostomy, a transverse colostomy, and a sigmoid ileostomy, as well as their reversal.
