laparoscopy
Plurallaparoscopies
- 1A medical examination of, or surgery on, the abdominal cavity, carried out by inserting a slim viewing instrument called a laparoscope through a small incision.
The surgeon recommended a laparoscopy to investigate the patient's chronic pelvic pain.
A diagnostic laparoscopy revealed adhesions that had gone undetected on earlier imaging.
Note
A coinage whose first half points to the side of the body: laparo- means "flank," and the term, modeled on German Laparoskopie, once covered any examination of the loins or abdomen. Only later did it narrow to work done inside the peritoneal cavity through a scope. Keep the family straight: the laparoscope is the instrument and laparoscopy the procedure. When the point is operating rather than looking, laparoscopic surgery is the near-equivalent phrase.
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Origin
This word joins laparo- ("flank") with -scopy ("looking at"), formed after the German Laparoskopie.