Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer, and gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies in general cause more deaths than any other type of cancer except for lung cancer.  Surgical resection of a GI tumor can be done for curative or palliative reasons, and these procedures have not traditionally been performed laparoscopically because surgeons have worried about being unable to fully remove a tumor using only small incisions.  Open surgery, however, poses many risks for the patient, so minimally invasive procedures for GI cancer are receiving more attention today than in the past.

The concept of laparoscopic surgery was developed in the first decade of the twentieth century, but defining indications for the technique was a major hurdle.  The 1990s witnessed a major increase in the number of laparoscopic procedures, but most surgeons continued to use open surgery for the resection of GI tumors.  In 1995, results from a randomized trial were published indicating that laparoscopic procedures for GI cancer were safe and resulted in less post-operative pain for patients.  A disadvantage of the minimally invasive procedures was that they took longer, and doctors worried about the cancer reappearing at the port sites used during the procedures.  More randomized trials were conducted, and these suggested that laparoscopic surgery is as effective as open surgery for treating GI cancer. 

In the future, new techniques may be used to treat GI cancers.  Robotic instruments are being developed to allow surgeons to remotely perform surgery using joysticks.  These robots offer three-dimensional imaging capabilities, but they do not provide surgeons with haptic feedback.  Another emerging technology is natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), which involves accessing the abdominal cavity through a natural orifice such as the mouth.  As was once the case for laparoscopic surgery, the indications of NOTES are still being defined, but the technique could become a useful tool for surgeons in the future.

Start or edit a Minimally Invasive Surgery encyclopedia article on Wikipedia.

You can link to this page from the article using the following URL:

http://www.cimit.org/forum/forum-mis-05.27.08.Tavakkolizadeh.html

Learn more about Wikipedia.

Post a comment / start a discussion on the Forum Blog regarding this Forum.