Despite these technological advances, it was not until after 1986, following the development of a video computer chip that allowed the magnification and projection of images onto television screens, that the techniques of laparoscopic surgery truly became integrated into the discipline of general surgery. The first laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed on a human patient was done [...]
On March 17, 1987, Philippe Mouret performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy, in Lyon, France. This date represents a profound epistemological leap: “before that, there was nothing, after that there was laparoscopic surgery.” Patients have deserted the waiting rooms of conventional surgeons and crowd into those of the laparoscopic surgeons. Moreover, laparoscopic surgery now forms a fundamental [...]
As a general surgeon in the 1960s, Phillipe Mouret (b. 1938) rotated on a gynecology service during which he had his first contact with laparoscopy. “At that time we used the instruments constructed by Palmer,” notes Mouret. “Since then I have brought my interest in that particular endoscopie technique into surgery.” Mouret shared his surgical practice with [...]