[NOTES and other minimally invasive surgical techniques (hybrid NOTES, NOTUS, SPS, SILS), and their effect on...

A new surgical technique--called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES)--evolved in 2004. Although numerous problems arose regarding this method--and most of them are unresolved yet--several new articles about the human application have been published. In order to find solutions of a certain extent, new techniques have been developed (hybrid NOTES, NOTUS, SPS, SLIS, etc). Although these could not eliminate difficulties completely, they do provide some solutions in many cases. It is very important for the surgeon of modern days to be familiar with these techniques and analyze them in a critically. Application of these methods requires a review of principles of surgery and flexible endoscopy. Although in many cases these are considered axioms, there data exist in literature of different management principles, as well. It is fundamental that critically review of the basic questions of NOTES (which natural orifice is the best, how to close the viscerotomy, how to avoid infection, who should carry out the NOTES surgery) is carried out in relation of the complications of the original 'gold standard' methods (e.g. frequency of infection or hernia after laparoscopy). Based on human data there is minimal postoperative pain after the NOTES procedure, and patients in general will leave the hospital on the same day. Is such a short postoperative stay enough and can we entirely dismiss drainage after cholecystectomy? Results of the human procedures are adequate to draw further conclusions regarding the new technique. Retrospective analysis of problems occurring during the evolution of laparoscopy can make it possible to avoid mistakes that can be made in the development of NOTES.