Minimal access surgery is now accepted tool of surgery and completed with one or more small incisions instead of a large incision of open surgery. The laparoscopic surgeon passes a telescope like device known as laparoscope with video camera through a small incision (usually only 1/4" long) into a body cavity. The laparoscopic surgeon then views the surgery on a TV monitor. Surgical instruments are then passed through other similar little incisions. The laparoscopic surgeon examines and operates on the area of patient in question by viewing magnified images on a high definition television.

When the laparoscope is used to operate on the abdomen, the procedure is called laparoscopy. When used in the chest, the same procedure is called thoracoscopy, and when it is used in a joint by orthopedic surgeon, it is called arthroscopy. The introduction of minimal access surgery into common practice in surgery began in 1985, when laparoscopic cholecystectomy was first performed by surgeons to remove a diseased gallbladder with gallsones.

In the immediate years thereafter, a small number of surgeons in the Germany, France and U.S. pioneered the development of laparoscopic techniques for this and other minimal access surgical applications. Recognizing the importance of their potential to improve patient care, World Laparoscopy Hospital is probably one of the very first Asian academic institutions to support the development of minimal access technologies and techniques.

In India World Laparoscopy Hospital initiated key research protocols in the physiology and immunology of laparoscopic surgery training long back in year 2000, which provided critical data during the next decade. The compelling results of these studies done by World Laparoscopy Hospital clearly dictated the wisdom of applying minimal access techniques to more types of surgeries; hence the establishment of the WLH training centre and expansion of its training facilities in 2001.