| Minimally invasive surgery, also commonly termed as ‘key-hole surgery’, is the use of specialized equipments via small surgical incisions instead of larger incisions used in conventional ‘open surgery’. Initially found to be beneficial in adult patients, it has been increasingly used in children in the last 2 decades. It has revolutionized surgical management by offering less tissue dissection while able to achieve the requirements of the standard surgical treatment. It offers less postoperative pain, faster recovery, shorter hospitalization and excellent cosmesis. However, strict patient-selection criteria is adhered to for patient’s safety.
Examples include laparoscopic appendicectomy, laparoscopic pyloromyotomy, laparoscopic removal of ovarian cyst, Meckel’s diverticulum, and intra-abdominal lesions, laparoscopic splenectomy, laparoscopic fundoplication, thoracoscopic pulmonary lobectomy for congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung, thoracoscopic repair of congenital diaphragmatic hernia etc.
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