Gynecological surgery and minimally invasive surgical treatment: current trends, future perspectives and new frontiers

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) currently allows to perform a lot of complicate operations with a short hospital stay and it is a safe, feasible, and patient-friendly method of performing an operation. Gynecological endoscopy is, essentially, a safe procedure and serious complications are rare, but it has some operative training limitations. Computer-enhanced instrumentation has long been recognized for its potential to overcome this limitations, for supporting video-manipulation and performing safe surgery. A new and very promising technology is the use of computers and robots in MIS medical education and training, the so called "Virtual Reality training systems", that allow training for basic tasks as well as for complex surgical procedures under very realistic conditions. Robotic surgery (RS), an emerging technology, is very useful for extremely fine dissection, for precise suturing techniques, and for dissection and suturing. Robotic surgery is often heralded as the new revolution: nowadays it is one of the most popular issues in surgery and it has been recognized as a major driving force in the advancement of MIS. Virtual Reality training systems and Robotic Surgery innovation should therefore help surgeons to overcome various difficulties and should allow them to perform more precise, safer and more numerous MIS interventions in the coming era. Clearly, there is no doubt that these innovative technologies will become an important tool in the surgical armamentarium, but, at the moment, the extent of their use is still evolving.