Edited by
Abhay Rane
Danny Painter
Francis X Keeley Jr
Foreward by Ralph V Clayman
One can never have at his/her disposal enough “tricks of the trade.” This easy-to read and nicely formatted book is a valuable aid to any surgeon who is performing laparoscopic surgery. I don’t believe there is a single practitioner who would be able, in going through this text, to not come away with at least one and most likely multiple new ideas and new methods to simplify one’s life during laparoscopy, either procedurally or in response to a laparoscopic complication.
This is the type of information not available through journals or texts. It contains no “p” values, no exhaustive series, nor student t-tests. This is the stuff that comes to experienced surgeons by dint of their labours. These are the “tricks of the trade” that until now, one could only obtain by visiting other medical centers and watching countless operations. As such, this diminutive text, is sure to make every laparoscopic surgeon’s life a bit easier regardless of whether they be novice, expert
or master.
While everything was “easier” in the open days, it was only easier for the surgeon and not for the patient. The tables have been turned, and rightfully so, such that each of us is being required to work a bit harder so that each of our patients suffers a bit less. Minimally invasive surgery is the answer. The barber pole that has signified surgeons for literally centuries is beginning to pale and shrink. Blood and bandages are no longer the hallmark of today’s surgeon. They have been replaced by the bloodless ‘Band-aid’ of keyhole surgery. This is as it should be in a technologically advanced society. The editors are to be congratulated on providing all of us with a handbook that will make each of us ever more skilled in this more demanding, albeit much kinder form of surgery.