Between 1993 and 2004, more than 20 million Americans underwent minimally invasive procedures, such as:

• Cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal)
• Colectomy (removal of the colon)
• Appendectomy
• Ventral hernia repair
• Hemorrhoid surgery
• Hysterectomy
• Surgery for acid reflux (GERS)
• Gastric bypass surgery for treatment of morbid obesity

These combined procedures add up to more than 1,800,000 Minimally Invasive Procedures each year. MIP has become a standard of care for cholecystectomy surgeries with close to 90% of the procedures being done this way. If you are faced with one of the surgeries mentioned above, ask your doctor whether MIP is an option for you and if he or she can recommend a physician trained in MIP.

Minimally Invasive Procedures offer benefits—shorter hospital stays, faster recover, less pain and scarring—over traditional procedures for a number of different operations. This website has presented information on a handful of them: colon surgery, appendectomy, hernia repair, hemorrhoid surgery, and hysterectomy. But there are several other procedures for which MIP may be appropriate.

If your physician has told you that you need surgery, learn about all of your treatment options. Talk to your doctor about whether you are a candidate for a Minimally Invasive Procedure.  procedures:

• Gallbladder removal - Minimally invasive cholecystectomy is the standard of care for surgery to remove the gallbladder when it is inflamed, blocked, filled with gallstones. Demand for this form of surgery has escalated to the point where nearly 90 percent of all operations to remove the gall bladder are performed using MIP techniques.
• Bariatric surgery – Minimally invasive bariatric surgery is performed as therapy for morbid obesity. MIP for bariatric surgery provides the same weight reduction as conventional bariatric surgery with a faster recovery time and less postoperative pain.¹
• Orthopedic Surgery - Minimally invasive techniques are frequently used by surgeons to treat disorders of the hips, knees, shoulders and spine.⁵
• Heart surgery - Minimally invasive heart surgery refers to several approaches for bypassing severely blocked arteries that are less difficult and risky than conventional open-heart surgery.  These approaches restore healthy blood flow to the heart without having to stop the heart and put the patient on a heart-lung machine during surgery⁶.
• Neurosurgery - Minimally invasive neurosurgery has enabled neurosurgeons to treat disorders of the spine, skull and brain, helping neurosurgeons to minimize incision size and trauma to adjacent tissues.

Is MIP right for you? Learn more about the benefits of MIP.

As with any surgery, MIP is associated with some risks and complications.