Minimally Invasive Hand Surgery and Treatment

Modern surgery has seen a dramatic change in access to anatomic areas of the body. Much smaller incisions utilizing advanced endoscopic techniques and instrumentation has helped lessen patient morbidity and the need for prolonged hospitalization. As experience is gained in the various techniques, operative times for these operations continue to improve as well. The use of these techniques has quickly become mainstays for surgical procedures in the United States, UK, Canada, Europe, Asia and other counties around the world. Laparoscopic surgery has existed since the development of diagnostic laparoscopy in the 1960s. The pioneers of laparoscopic surgery Semm K and Muehe E changed it from a diagnostic to a surgical procedure at the beginning of the 1980s, and it has since become a frequently applied technique for a wide field of indications. The procedure has become the gold standard for many organ systems, with some of the most common being reproductive (particularly gynecological) and digestive (as for cholecystectomy). A significant improvement in surgical training, as well as developments of instruments, imaging, and surgical techniques, has made laparoscopic surgery safe and feasible across different medical fields [1].