laparoscopic surgery
Meaning of laparoscopic surgery: Laparoscopic surgery uses small incisions, a camera, and long instruments to operate inside the abdomen or pelvis without the large opening open surgery requires.
Definition of laparoscopic surgery
Laparoscopic surgery is a surgical approach performed through several small incisions rather than one large opening. A laparoscope, a thin instrument fitted with a light and camera, is inserted through one incision to project an image of the internal structures onto a screen, while surgical instruments are passed through other small incisions to perform the operation.
Because it avoids a large incision, laparoscopic surgery is generally associated with less postoperative pain, a shorter hospital stay, and a faster return to normal activity compared with the equivalent operation performed as open surgery, though not every procedure or patient is suited to this approach.
Laparoscopic techniques are used across many types of surgery, including procedures on the gallbladder, appendix, and reproductive organs, and the approach is sometimes combined with removal of tissue for examination under a microscope when a diagnosis needs to be confirmed.
Used in a sentence
The gallbladder was removed using laparoscopic surgery, allowing for a shorter recovery than open surgery would have required.
Good to know
Laparoscopic surgery is not suited to every operation or every patient, and a procedure begun laparoscopically is sometimes converted to open surgery if visibility or safety concerns arise during the operation.
Word origin
Where “laparoscopic surgery” comes from
Formed from Greek lapara, meaning the flank or the soft part of the body between the ribs and hip, and skopein, meaning to examine, describing the instrument used to view inside the abdomen.