ABSTRACT
The first reports on minimal invasive surgery in adults were
published by gynecologists and stem from the first half of last
century. By then, it was mainly used for diagnostic proce-
dures, due to the limitations in visualization and instrumen-
tation. When chip cameras were introduced in the late 1980s,
the surgeon and assistant were able to watch a screen and
perform surgery at the same time, instead of holding a
telescope and looking through a lens close to the patient.
This, and the development of better endosurgical instru-
ments, enabled surgeons to perform a variety of laparoscopic
procedures including appendectomies, cholecystectomies,
fundoplications, and more advanced operations. However,
due to the lack of instruments, endoscopes, and trocars of
appropriate size, the acceptance of minimal invasive surgery
in the pediatric population in general, let alone in neonates,
took longer than in adults. Recently, the development of
smaller, shorter, and more durable instruments along with
improved optical equipment has allowed pediatric surgeons
to perform more complex endosurgical procedures in young
children and newborns.1
