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Veterinary minimally invasive surgery (MIS) as a surgical technique is unique, as it had its origin in human application. Other biomedical techniques were traditionally developed in animal models and later applied to human patients. Therefore, the history of small animal laparoscopy has to start with the overall history of laparoscopy. Parallel with the developments in laparoscopy were work in the chest cavity, but as much of the development were driven by urologists and gynecologists, the text below will often use the term laparoscopy interchangeably with MIS.

A variety of opinions exist on who should be credited the invention of endoscopy. Some suggest to go back to Hippocrates (460–377 BCE), who was performing rectal examinations with a speculum [1, 2].

More consistently, the German physician Philipp Bozzini (1773–1809) has received credit for clinical use of his invention the “Lichtleiter,” or “the light conductor,” a primitive endoscope for inspection of ears, mouth, nasal cavity, urethra, rectum, bladder, and cervix. The Bozzini family came from a well‐to‐do Italian family, but they had to leave Italy for Germany due to a lost duel by the father. Bozzini dedicated the last five years of his life, which was cut short by contracting typhus from his patients, to development of his instrument; a vase‐shaped, leather covered tin lantern using a wax candle light source (ssss1) [3]. Though the Austrian contemporary health authorities were satisfied with the instrument, a second opinion by the Wien medical school, likely negatively influenced by the church, concluded that such an instrument should not be used.