Preface on special issue of “laparoscopic liver surgery”

In this special issue of “laparoscopic liver surgery” for the Annals of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery (ALES), leading experts and teams from Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, participated by contributing their knowledge.

In February 2017 the First European Guidelines Meeting on Laparoscopic Liver Surgery was held in Southampton (UK) and in June 2017 the first world congress of the International Laparoscopic Liver Society will be held in Paris. The laparoscopic liver surgery is evolving every day and this special issue is a good representation of the worldwide laparoscopic liver surgery (LLS) experience.

In one article, the LLS for Colorectal Liver Metastases are presented with a literature review from the Southampton Center. In a second paper a technical note for the Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma is proposed by an Italian team. An interesting experience on Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy and Cirrhosis is proposed by a Brazilian team. We reported our experience on hepatocellular carcinoma treated with the laparoscopic approach. Staying on cirrhosis, a systematic review on the LLR for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma as a bridge for transplantation is reported by Lai Q. Concerning the transplantation, we are honored to have both right and left lateral experience for living donation from two European Centers.

Coming back to the LLS, the technical difficulty is now evolving and we will first have a look on the anatomical right posterior sectionectomy and the experience of the use of intercostal trocars for LLS. Nonetheless, frontiers on the indication for LLS are open and first with the future of laparoscopic major liver resection and after with the initial experience on extended LLS describe to us the increasing indication for LLS. Furthermore, we have a perspective on current status in robotic hepatectomies.

All LLS field have been treated in this issue by worldwide expert team. We are very grateful to all authors, experts and thought leaders in this field for their excellent contributions.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery for the series “Laparoscopic Liver Surgery”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/ales.2017.03.03). The series “Laparoscopic Liver Surgery” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Levi Sandri GB served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Annals of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery from Aug 2016 to Jul 2018. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Giovanni Battista Levi Sandri