Laparoscopic Resection for Colon Cancer — The End of the Beginning?

Technological advances, which are followed by long periods of catch-up while clinicians learn how to use the new techniques appropriately, often precede true medical progress. Such certainly appears to be the case for minimally invasive surgery. Early on, surgeons were hampered by having to steady the laparoscope with one hand and look through a small lens while performing surgery with the other hand. Advances in laparoscopic surgery were facilitated by a series of innovations that allowed true video surgery, in which two surgeons work together with both hands to perform operations. In the late 1990s, surgeons began to use minimally . . .