[The history of laparoscopy]

Laparoscopy has for a long time been the domain of some very few people. The first physicians to perform "coelioscopy" routinely where internists about 1920. Later, gynecologists where the ones to make the most important developments and inventions. The actual start of modern laparoscopy in surgery was the first video-endoscopic cholecystectomy, performed by the french surgeon Mouret in 1987. From this time on, laparoscopy for diagnostics and cholecystectomy became a new standard within about just five years. This article summarizes the history of laparoscopy from the ancient time to the present.