KEYHOLE SURGERY

noun (Health and Fitness) (Science and Technology) Colloquially, minimally invasive surgery, carried out through a very small incision, using fibre-optic tubes for investigation and as a means of passing tiny instruments into the tissue. Etymology: Formed by compounding: surgery done through a hole which is so small that it is likened to a keyhole. History and Usage: Keyhole surgery, a technique that is dependent upon advances in fibre optics in the seventies and eighties, has been practised for about a decade, but the colloquial nickname belongs to the second half of the eighties, when it became possible to carry out what would otherwise have been major operations using the technique. Never an admirer of 'keyhole' surgery, I decided on liberal exposure of the problem. Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 1 May 1988, p. 28 The first operation in Britain to remove a kidney...by minimal invasive surgery, or 'keyhole' surgery in popular jargon, was carried out in Portsmouth. The Times 17 May 1990, p. 20