What Is Laparoscopy? A Guide to the Procedure and Its Uses

Laparoscopy is a modern diagnostic surgical procedure used for examining the internal organs of the abdomen. It is often called minimally invasive surgery or band-aid surgery as, while performing this procedure, a small incision is made in the body through which a small tube is inserted inside to examine the organs.
To perform laparoscopy, an instrument called a laparoscope is used to view the organs of the abdomen or pelvis. A laparoscope is a thin, long tube with a high-resolution camera and high-intensity light in the front, which when inserted into the body, captures the images of the abdominal organs. The captured images are displayed on the video monitor real-time when the doctor performs the procedure. This way, the doctor can avoid an open surgery and diagnose the issues or obtain samples for biopsy through laparoscopy itself.

Advantages of Laparoscopy

There are numerous advantages of a laparoscopic procedure over open surgery:

• Significant reduction in pain and hemorrhage
• Smaller incisions heal sooner, hence the recovery time is shorter
• Monitoring the entire abdominal area or pelvic area using a laparoscope

Gynaecological Laparoscopy

Gynaecologists opt for gynaecological laparoscopy in case they wish to examine the internal organs of the abdomen or pelvis to check for issues in the reproductive tract. Some of the most common examinations performed by doctors through laparoscopy include:

• Removal of ovarian cysts
• Surgical contraception such as tubal ligation
• Hysterectomy

Many conditions such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, cysts or tumours in the ovary, ectopic pregnancy, adhesions or pus in the pelvis, infertility issues, pelvic inflammatory diseases, and reproductive cancers are easily identified using laparoscopy. Gynaecologists opt for surgeries or microsurgeries based on their laparoscopic diagnosis. This saves a lot of pain for the patients and also helps the doctors to identify the issue with precision for providing the necessary treatment.