Surgical endoscopy: essential skills in gastrointestinal surgery

The impact of flexible endoscopy in the management of gastrointestinal disease has grown from a merely diagnostic role to one of great therapeutic potential, supplanting many of the previously utilized surgical procedures. Surgeons have had an integral role in the development and advancement of these many techniques, and it has become imperative that surgeons take an active role in training and utilizing these tools. This focused issue in Annals of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery highlights the many primary and secondary flexible endoscopic procedures that surgeons must be aware of and adept at their performance. We would like to thank the many authors for their excellent contributions to this update, as well as the editors of this journal for their support and interest in this very important topic. We believe that the readers will find great interest in this journal issue, and hopefully will find it a valuable and educational tool.

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 “Surgical Endoscopy: Essential Skills in Gastrointestinal Surgery”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/ales.2019.08.10). The series “Surgical Endoscopy: Essential Skills in Gastrointestinal Surgery” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Dr. Marks serves as a consultant for Boston Scientific and Olympus. Dr. Juza has no 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.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Ryan M. Juza

Jeffrey M. Marks