Laparoscopy and laparoscopic surgery

Today laparoscopy is an alternative technique to laparotomy for carrying out many operations that have traditionally required an open approach. The benefits of minimal access surgery have been well recorded; they include less post-operative morbidity, shorter duration of hospital stay and a faster return to work. Advances in technology, specifically in fibre optics and video imaging, have made the relatively recent rapid progress in laparoscopic surgery possible. Operative laparoscopy, however, requires a high degree of technical skill and training.