In the late 1980s a revolution began in general surgery. In Europe, then in the United States, surgeons began removing the gallbladder through tiny incisions while watching inside the body on a video monitor displaying images from a camera attached a thin telescope called a laparoscope. The laparoscopic revolution had begun. Called many names, laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, key-hole surgery, or Band-Aid surgery, the procedures all share the same reliance on tiny insicions and video guidance of surgical instruments inside the body without the need for large insicions.
The specific types of operations that are routinely performed laparoscopically are highlighted below:
Removal of appendix
Resection of Colon, small bowel, stomach and pancreas
Diagnostic laparospcopy
Lysis of adhesions
Essentially any organ any organ in the abdomen can be approached via laparoscopy
