Anastomotic devices for minimally invasive surgery

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has had a tremendous impact on surgical practice in the last decades. For gastrointestinal surgery, construction of an anastomosis is often a critical part of the operation. Several technologies are used to perform an anastomosis in MIS. From smaller modifications of standard suturing techniques to the use of complex robotic surgery, suturing is still an essential part of MIS in this context. Stapling techniques have been adopted and modified from conventional open surgery. In the future, even more MIS procedures will be performed, especially if cancer surgery becomes more widely accepted. Further developments in MIS anastomotic techniques can be anticipated.