Picture an operation—the removal of a diseased gallbladder, for instance—performed through four incisions of less than half an inch, just large enough to put in the tiny video camera/scope and stick-like surgical instruments, as the surgeon's eyes are fixed on a TV screen showing the patient's innards—and the operation itself!

That's what "videoscopic" surgery looks like. Widely known as laparoscopic or endoscopic surgery, this high-tech form of surgical care is not a specific type of operation. It is an expanding group of different kinds of operations performed with newly developed surgical instruments and methods that cause the least amount of physical stress to patients. It involves the use of a small scope, such as the laparoscope, which magnifies the body's internal structures and projects the image onto a video monitor in the operating room.

That videoscopic surgery requires only small incisions—and thus is minimally invasive—is a distinguishing feature of this revolutionary approach to surgical care.

[Back to Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery]