Jean Civiale (1792–1867) was a French surgeon and urologist, who, in 1832, invented a surgical instrument (the lithotrite) and performed , the first known minimally invasive surgery, to crush stones inside the bladder without having to open the abdomen (lithotomy). To remove a calculus, Civiale inserted his instrument through the urethra and bored holes in the stone. Afterwards, he crushed it with the same instrument and aspired the resulting fragments or let them flow normally with urine. Civiale founded the first urology service in the world, at the Necker Hospital in Paris.