Chyliferous vessel pathologies and associated syndromes: Primary chylous ascites

Chylous ascites is the accumulation of free milk-like peritoneal fluid rich in triglycerides, due to the presence of intestinal lymph in the abdominal cavity. In this paper we report our experience in management and treatment of 12 patients affected by primary chylous ascites. We demonstrated that the use of laparoscopy to study and to treat the primary chylous ascitis, together with microsurgical methods, provides remarkable advantages, not only during the diagnostic evaluation, to study the nature and to find the place and extension of lymphochylous malformation dysplastic areas, but also to treat these disorders together with surgical, microsurgical and laser techniques.