Laparoscopy is a type of surgery that uses smaller cuts than there were in traditional surgery. The process takes its name from the laparoscope, a thin tool with a small video camera and light on the end. When a surgeon inserts it through a small cut and into your body, you can watch a video monitor and see what is happening inside you. Without those tools, they would have to make a much larger opening.

Thanks to the special instruments, your surgeon also does not have to reach into your body. That also means less cutting to see the internal organs in the abdomen, such as the liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas, and kidneys.