General surgery is a surgical speciality that focuses on abdominal contents including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft tissue, trauma, peripheral vascular surgery and hernias.
Laparoscopy is a surgical diagnostic procedure used to examine the organs inside the abdomen. It's a low-risk, minimally invasive procedure that requires only small incisions.
Why is laparoscopy performed?
Laparoscopy is often used to identify and diagnose the source of pelvic or abdominal pain. It's usually performed when noninvasive methods are unable to help with diagnosis.
In many cases, abdominal problems can also be diagnosed with imaging techniques such as:
Ultrasound, which uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of the body
CT scan, which is a series of special X-rays that take cross-sectional images of the body
MRI scan, which uses magnets and radio waves to produce images of the body
Laparoscopy is performed when these tests don't provide enough information or insight for a diagnosis. The procedure may also be used to take a biopsy, or sample of tissue, from a particular organ in the abdomen.
Laparoscopy procedure to examine the following organs:
