When a stomach or intestinal disease requires surgery, the traditional surgical method is “open”, i.e., an incision of 10 or even 20 centimeters in length is made in the abdomen, which is very traumatic, with long recovery time and more postoperative complications. Can there be a safe and less painful surgical method that is equally or even better than the “open” method? The answer is yes – minimally invasive surgery. Minimally invasive surgery is very different from the traditional “open” surgery that people imagine, also known as laparoscopic surgery, which requires only a few 0.5 to 1 cm holes in the abdomen, through which surgical instruments are inserted into the abdominal cavity, and through the observation of the TV screen, the diseased organs and lesions can be removed to get rid of the disease. This surgical method has the advantages of no abdomen opening, little trauma, little pain and fast recovery, so people used to describe this surgery as “hole punching” or “eye punching” surgery. Nowadays, the most familiar minimally invasive surgery is the “eye” gallbladder removal, which has become the “standard surgery” for gallbladder removal. In fact, the technology of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery for gastrointestinal diseases has also become very mature, such as laparoscopic radical surgery for colorectal tumors has also become a standard procedure in some western countries. At present, almost all traditional gastrointestinal diseases requiring open surgery can be done laparoscopically, such as appendicitis, gastrointestinal perforation, colon tumor, rectal tumor, gastric tumor, intestinal obstruction, gastroesophageal reflux disease, hernia, etc. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery are being recognized by more and more surgeons and patients, and gradually replacing traditional surgical methods, its application is being promoted and popularized. Perhaps you may ask, what are the advantages of laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery compared with traditional open surgery? 1.Little surgical trauma Traditional open surgery, due to the long operation time, large surgical incision, coupled with the continuous pulling of the incision spreader is likely to cause damage to the soft tissues around the incision, making the patient’s wound pain more obvious after surgery, slow recovery after surgery, if the incision infection, cracking, recovery time will be longer. In contrast, minimally invasive lumpectomy only requires poking a few small 0.5-1.0 cm holes in the abdominal wall to put in the corresponding instruments for surgery, and there is no or only a small incision a few centimeters long after surgery (for taking out the surgical resection specimen), so the patient’s postoperative pain is not obvious and can get out of bed early, with fewer wound complications and faster recovery. 2, clearer surgical field of view, less stimulation of lesion pulling Some people worry that laparoscopic surgery will have a poor field of view and unclear lesion removal. In fact, on the contrary, laparoscopic surgery can magnify the field of view of surgery 4-6 times with the help of TV image system, and the whole operation process is completed under direct vision, which makes the operation more delicate and thorough. For malignant tumors, traditional open surgery requires tissue pulling due to the exposure of the operation field, and the tissues are subjected to long time high-intensity extrusion, plus the doctor’s hand frequently touches the tissues, which may easily cause tumor metastasis; whereas laparoscopic surgery has a full field of view, the doctor’s hand is outside the operation field, and sharp dissection is the main technique, which does not directly touch the tumor tissues, so that the occurrence of tumor metastasis can be reduced. The most common complication of abdominal surgery is intestinal adhesion and intestinal obstruction. Traditional open surgery has a high chance of occurrence due to large trauma, and data show that 60% to 94% of patients will have different degrees of intestinal adhesion after abdominal surgery. With laparoscopic surgery, this complication is significantly reduced. Because laparoscopic surgery is less traumatic to tissues, less disturbance to organs, less systemic reaction, less postoperative pain, and can get out of bed early, resume diet, and shorten the time of hospital treatment. For tumor patients, comprehensive treatment such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be implemented earlier after surgery, which undoubtedly creates more favorable conditions for improving the treatment effect of malignant tumors.