In 1987 Mouret performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy, starting a revolution in surgery. For paediatricians it is difficult to appreciate the magnitude of what has occurred in this short period. The development of minimal access techniques represents the most significant change in surgical practice since the introduction of aseptic technique or safe anaesthesia. As with many innovatio...

BACKGROUND Cardiac surgery has been the last area of clinical surgery to adopt and embrace minimally invasive surgical techniques. Since the onset of arterial embolectomy in 1965, arthroscopic knee surgery performed in 1975 and laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 1985, huge advances in videoscopic, thorascopic and small incision surgery has taken place in all specialties which now allow change in t...

BACKGROUND During the past few decades, scientific developments in cariology, dental materials and diagnostic systems have changed dentistry's approach to diagnosis and management of dental caries. The authors summarize these developments. OVERVIEW Dental adhesives and restorative materials, new understanding of the caries process and remineralization, and changes in caries prevlance have cat...

During the last two decades, several techniques for minimally-invasive parathyroidectomy have been developed, including open approaches (open minimally-invasive parathyroidectomy - OMI P), minimally-invasive radio-guided parathyroidectomy (MI-RP), video-assisted parathyroidectomy (VAP), video-assisted parathyroidectomy through a lateral approach (VAP-LA) and purely endoscopic parathyroidectomy ...

In the second stage, the patient is placed in a supine position for laparoscopic construction of the gastric conduit, placement of a feeding jejunostomy, and pyloroplasty. The third stage consists of mobilization of the cervical esophagus via the left neck, removal of the surgical specimen and gastric pull-up, and construction of an esophagogastric anastomosis. This phase of the operation is pe...

The key causes of mortality today include cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, cancer and diabetes. Figure 1, from the World Health Organisation’s Global Burden of Disease Report (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2006), illustrates the proportion of deaths due to the major causes. When these statistics are taken together with the age at death data as shown in Figure 2 (WHO, 2006) it can...

We present the case of a 54-year-old female with longstanding history of myasthenia gravis, on whom an anti ACH antibody test was positive. We performed a minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy (VATS) on this patient. Preoperatively, the patient was stabilized with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and Mestinon (Pyridostigmine). The pre-operative workup included a computed t...

Pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) was introduced almost 40 years ago. 1 In the 1980s and 1990s, three-port PPV with 20-gauge (G) instruments was the norm. In 2002, 25-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (TSV) was introduced.2,3 This system permits threeport PPV using microcannulas, trocars, and 25-G instrumentation without requiring sutures to close the sclerotomies. Subsequently, a similar...

I recent decades, an increasing number of spinal surgical approaches and techniques have been developed that limit approach-related morbidity to the paraspinal musculature (44,60). Minimally invasive spine (MIS) surgery encompasses a variety of techniques designed to improve perioperative measures (e.g. blood loss, postoperative pain narcotic usage, recovery time) and longterm functional outcom...

Describe the most common techniques used for minimally invasive hip surgery. Certainly the most commonly described approaches in the literature are the posterior and direct anterior. The posterior approach is essentially the same as what surgeons have done traditionally but with a shorter incision and less dissection of the deep musculature. The 2-incision approach, which I prefer, has fallen o...