The root term [-lapar-] term is Greex, and although today we use it to mean "abdomen", it actually means "flank" or "loins".

In its pure etymological meaning the root term [lapar], as in "laparotomy" or "laparoscopy" should be used to denote a surgical action in only two of the abdominal regions, the right and left lumbar regions (or flank regions) denoted in the accompanying image.

The first use of the term [-lapar-] referring to the whole of the abdominal region was in January, 1878 by Thomas Bryant, FRCS in his book "A Manual for the Practice of Surgery" using the term [laparotomy] to describe an "incision in the abdomen". Other terms used to denote the abdominal region are "ventral", and of course, "abdominal".

• Laparotomy: the suffix [-otomy] means to "open" or "to cut", the term means then " to cut of to open the abdomen"
• Laparoscope: an instrument used to view into the abdomen
• Laparoscopy: the act of using a laparoscope
• Laparostomy: an unusual procedure where the abdomen is not closed, but left partially open (but protected) so that the surgeon can come back periodically to perform an abdominal "lavage" to manage an intractable abdominal sepsis
• Laparorrhaphy: the suffix [-orrhaphy] means "to repair". Refers to the repair or closure of a laparotomy

Abdominal regions and their content