Laparoscopic Surgery: A Revolution
The advent of laparoscopic surgery has created a revolution in abdominal surgeries. Initially applied just for diagnostic purpose, it has rapidly gained popularity for the management of appendicitis and gallstone disease, making it the gold standard treatment for these conditions. With improvement in the instrumentation and surgical skills today almost all of the abdominal surgeries are safely possible by laparoscopic method in expert hands and after proper patient selection. All this has led to a low threshold for surgical treatment for many conditions as the morbidity related to surgery has gone down significantly with laparoscopic surgeries.

What is laparoscopic surgery?
Laparoscopic or “minimally invasive” surgery is a specialized technique for performing surgery. In traditional “open” surgery the surgeon uses a single incision to enter into the abdomen. Laparoscopic surgery uses several 0.5-1cm incisions. Each incision is called a “port.” Specialized instruments and a special camera known as a laparoscope are passed through the ports during the procedure. At the beginning of the procedure, the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide gas to provide a working and viewing space for the surgeon. The laparoscope transmits images from the abdominal cavity to high-resolution video monitors in the operating room. During the operation the surgeon watches detailed images of the abdomen on the monitor. This system allows the surgeon to perform the same operations as traditional surgery but with smaller incisions.