Laparoscopy: the revolution in 20th century surgery and its modern application
Laparoscopy has been used since the 1960s as a diagnostic method mainly in gynecology.
Therapeutic laparoscopy in general surgery began internationally in the late 1980s, bringing a real revolution in the surgery of intra-abdominal diseases. The enlargement of the surgical field offered to the surgeon by laparoscopy enabled greater precision in surgical movements, helping to perform the operation more perfectly and achieving maximum surgical results. With laparoscopy, the abdominal walls are not cut, offering spectacular postoperative recovery and a host of advantages that changed the map of surgical pathology. Therapeutic laparoscopy minimized postoperative complications, such as postoperative hernias, wound suppurations, intra-abdominal adhesions, thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, while postoperative mortality was dramatically reduced. The length of hospital stay for patients was reduced to a few hours to a few days and the time it took to return to daily activities was drastically reduced.
The first laparoscopic procedure was performed in 1987 in France and was laparoscopic cholecystectomy, i.e. the removal of the gallbladder for the treatment of cholelithiasis. At the end of the next five years, laparoscopic access was established internationally as the method of choice for the treatment of cholelithiasis. During the 1990s, its use was gradually extended to most intra-abdominal surgical conditions. Since 2000, there has been a gradual refinement of the technique, resulting in it becoming the method of choice internationally for the majority of intra-abdominal surgical diseases, offering patients a spectacular improvement in their postoperative course.
Today, in addition to laparoscopic cholecystectomy, all internationally applied laparoscopic procedures in general surgery are performed with great success at the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki. Namely, laparoscopic repair of inguinal hernia, laparoscopic repair of postoperative hernia as well as all abdominal wall hernias, laparoscopic appendectomy, laparoscopic repair of diaphragmatic hernia, laparoscopic enterectomy, laparoscopic splenectomy, laparoscopic adrenalectomy, laparoscopic repair of esophageal achalasia, laparoscopic hepatectomy, laparoscopic gastrectomy and lastly laparoscopic pancreatectomy.
Laparoscopic surgery is the appropriate method of treating surgical diseases in our time, changing classical surgical practice forever.
General Surgeon Michalis Genitsaris was a pioneer of laparoscopic surgery in Greece, as he performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Northern Greece on March 21, 1991 and contributed to the establishment of the technique nationwide. During the 1990s, following international practice, he performed a number of laparoscopic surgeries, extending the application of the method to most intra-abdominal surgeries. His experience now numbers many thousands of cases.
