A medical examination of the inside of the abdominal cavity using an abdominoscope or similar viewing instrument.
From Latin abdomen + Greek skopein (to look) + -ia (condition of). The -scopy suffix denotes the procedure of examining, while -scope denotes the tool.
Before laparoscopic surgery became common in the 1980s, doctors had very limited ways to see inside a living patient—abdominoscopy was a revolutionary peephole into the body's hidden chambers.
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