Some years ago these questions would have been considered naive, or even unimaginable. Going to the doctor's would top the list of "the most avoidable things to do". Even the doctors would consider 'pain' and 'trauma' as natural and inevitable 'partners' of surgery that the patients would have to 'simply bear'.

But in the last two decades, medical science, especially surgery, has seen a paradigm change. These very questions lead to a revolution in the world of surgery - and the result was laparoscopy, commonly known as Minimal Access Surgery.

When we think of surgery, most of us imagine the conventional form of surgery, or 'open' surgery, which involves large incisions or cutting-through large areas in the body. Such type of surgery takes longer to heal and causes great trauma to the patient.

By contrast, laparoscopy or Minimal Access Surgery (M.A.S) is done through minimal invasion of the body. Simply speaking, this means minimal skin cuts, minimal trauma, minimal scars but maximum benefit.

Many understand laparoscopy to be just an advanced surgical technique. But that is not the whole story. Laparoscopy is more than just advanced medical technology. It is a philosophy that believes that cure is possible through least trauma and this, in fact, is a patient's right.

This new way of 'rethinking medical treatment' has indeed transformed into one of the world's most important human rights movements, a change which touched the lives of millions of patients who had suffered too long in the shadows of silence.