ABSTRACT
Laparoscopy, the visualization of the abdominal cavity, has been utilized as a diagnostic tool by gastroenterologists, gynecologists, and surgeons for more than a century. Rapid advances in fiberoptic technology and stapling instrumentation as well as refined insufflation techniques in the late 1980s, have brought laparoscopy to the mainstream surgeons’ armamentarium in both diagnostic and therapeutic endeavors (1,2).
