Case Histories of Significant Medical Advances: Laparoscopy

Abstract

We describe how operations through laparoscopes – tubular instruments inserted into abdominal cavities – revolutionized gynecological and other surgeries inside the abdomen such as gall bladder removal. Specifically, we chronicle the: 1) foundational technologies and procedures for laparoscopy developed by gynecologists from the 1940s through the 1970s. 2) extension of laparoscopy to gallbladder removal in the late 1980s, 3) adoption of the technique in the 1990s.