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Lessons Learned From the Laparoscopic Revolution

Alexander C. Allori, MD, MPH; I. Michael Leitman, MD; Elizabeth Heitman, PhD

Arch Surg. 2008;143(4):333-334.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

We read with great interest the recent report by Marescaux et al¹ of a purely transvaginal cholecystectomy. Justifiably, there is much enthusiasm over an accomplishment that heralds a new era in natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and over a technology that will change the face of general surgery. Yet, the current excitement is hauntingly reminiscent of the explosive force of the endoscopic revolution of the 1990s and specifically the rapid acceptance of the laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). It is both useful and necessary to examine the parallels between the recent developments in NOTES and the push toward minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s, for as the American philosopher George Santayana famously put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was originally developed and popularized in France by Erich Muhe, MD, Philippe . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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