The term "minimally invasive surgery" generally represents the effort to reduce the impact of surgery on the patient, both in terms of incision size and location, as well patient discomfort and recovery of normal health status. The recognition of the im- portance of these characteristics has per- vaded all aspects of surgery – generally speaking, there is widespread acceptance of the role of minimization of incision size, use of self-retaining retractors, and other measures to improve the patients' overall experience and recovery, and these might be considered efforts to reduce the inva- siveness of surgery in general. For the pur- poses of this article, two main categories of surgery will be considered: laparoscopic (and robotic) surgery, and trocar-based sur- gical kits and techniques.
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