"After a complex laparoscopic operation, the 65-year-old patient was home in time for dinner."
Elisa Birnbaum, surgeon
The laparoscope is the James Bond-like gadget of the surgeon's repertoire of instruments. Only a small incision through the patient's abdominal wall is made into which the surgeon puffs carbon dioxide to open up the passage. Using a laparoscope, a visual assessment and diagnosis, and even surgery can then be performed using tiny tools. This surgery causes less physiological damage, reduces patients' pain and speeds their recovery leading to shorter hospital stays.
In the early 1900s, Germany's Georg Kelling (1866-1945) developed a surgical technique in which he injected air into the abdominal cavity and inserted a cytoscope—a tubelike viewing scope—to assess the patient's innards. In late 1901, he began experimenting and successfully peered into a dog's abdominal cavity using the technique.
Without cameras, laparoscopy's use was limited to diagnostic procedures carried out by gynecologists and gastroenterologists. By the 1980s, improvements in miniature video devices and fiber optics inspired surgeons to embrace minimally invasive surgery. In 1996, the first live Internet broadcast of a laparoscopy took place. A year later, Dr. J. Himpens used a computer-controlled robotic system to aid in laparoscopy This type of surgery is now used for gall bladder removal as well as for the diagnoses and surgeries of fertility disorders, cancer, and hernias.
