[Celioscopic digestive surgery: from the explosion to a critical reflexion]

A critical review of laparoscopic digestive surgery indications is proposed. Patient's benefit by laparoscopy is to undergo the same procedure as by open surgery with identical security conditions but with less postoperative pain and an earlier recovery. Today laparoscopy in digestive surgery is mainly indicated in the fields of functional and benign diseases. Oncology seems for our team to stay a relative contra-indication as yet. Taken into account the future technical progresses, this 1996 state of the art is obviously only a temporary view of the technique before expected mutations.