[The role of minimal invasive surgery in surgical education.]

The first laparoscopic cholecystectomy carried out in 1985 generated a great enthusiasm about the new surgical technique; however, it was evident that educational techniques required improvement because this new procedure presented a higher prevalence of injuries in the biliary tract than conventional surgery. Minimally invasive surgery has a number of advantages over open surgery. Some of these advantages allowed the use of technology in order to generate experts, evaluate them objectively, document the process in video, assess their competence and use simulators to improve overall surgical education.