[Minimally invasive liver resections]

Laparoscopic surgery is a standard and preferred modality of surgical treatment. Progress in laparoscopic procedures and the development of dedicated technology have made it possible to approach laparoscopic liver resections in selected patients. Initially operations were performed for benign and peripheral lesions, but nowadays more than 50% of total laparoscopic surgery is due to malignancy.

We conducted a literature search using Pubmed; by entering the keywords "Laparoscopic Liver Resection" we obtained a set of publications focused on this issue. We limited the selection to the period from 1991 to the present. Additionally, the selection was limited to reviews, prospective randomized trials or cohort studies. Also, we selected publications in the English and Czech languages.

On the basis of the search, we identified 2345 publications, of which the abovementioned criteria were satisfied by 319 papers. Of these, 312 publications were in English and 7 in the Czech language. 59% of the searched publications were published in the last 5 years, which gives evidence of progression of the laparoscopic liver resection method.

Laparoscopic liver resections are considered as safe for both benign and malignant lesions with comparable oncological outcomes compared to open resections. They also provide better short-term results such as a shorter hospital stay, lower overall costs, lower postoperative pain, reduced blood loss, earlier intestinal recovery, generally shorter convalescence of the patient, better cosmetic results and a lower rate of complications.Key words: laparoscopic liver resections - hand-assisted laparoscopy.