Minimally invasive surgery: changes in the changing world        HUANG Zhi-qiang. Research Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery  PLA , General Hospital of PLA, Beijing100853，China
Abstract    Since the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy undertaken at 1991 in China mainland, the progress of minimally invasive surgery in every field of surgical practice, both technically and conceptually, was rapid and widespread. Laparoscopic liver resection is no more a dream, but a reality. 2804 cases of hepatectomies under laparoscope have been collected from English literatures. Laparoscopic resection may be the modality of treatment for benign tumors of the pancreas, and minimally invasive surgery may serve as the method of injury control in cases of severe acute necrotizing pancreatitis and other severe surgical illness. Now, natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and robotic surgery are gaining more and more great interest. The combination of imaging technology-endoscopy-laparoscopy-robotics-NOTES may make a great impact on present day surgery. Surgery to-day may be more and more digitalized.