ABSTRACT
For centuries, examination of the abdominal cavity and pelvis for diagnostic purposes has played an important role in medicine. Before the development of radiographic imaging techniques and laparoscopy, laparotomy provided the only means by which the abdominal and pelvic viscera could be inspected. In the early 1900s, George Kelling and Hans lacobaeus successfully used endoscopes to diagnose diverse intra-abdominal pathology. Gynecologists recognized the utility of laparoscopy for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the 1960s and 1970s, but the use of diagnostic laparoscopy in the general surgery community began only after surgeons in France (1987) and the United States (1988) reported on the benefits of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
