A minimally invasive medical procedure is defined as one that is carried out by entering the body through the skin or through a body cavity or anatomical opening, but with the smallest damage possible to these structures. According to this classification, the two other kinds of procedures are: invasive and non-invasive. Model of the layers of human skin In zootomy and dermatology, skin is an organ of the integumentary system composed of a layer of tissues that protect underlying muscles and organs. ... A body cavity is an aspect of a number of basic animal body plans (phyla) that incorporate a central body cavity, known as a coelom. ... The term invasive in Medicine has two meanings: A medical procedure which penetrates or breaks the skin or a body cavity, i. ... The term non-invasive in medicine has two meanings: A medical procedure which does not penetrate or break the skin or a body cavity, i. ...

For example, minimally invasive surgery may be performed in this way, thus resulting in less operative trauma for the patient. It also less expensive, reduces hospitalization time, causes less pain and scarring, and reduces the incidence of complications related to the surgical trauma, speeding the recovery. However, minimally invasive is not synonymous with minor surgery, because this approach is presently used for performing complex operations such as heart surgery. A typical modern surgery operation For other meanings of the word, see Surgery (disambiguation) Surgery (from the Greek cheirourgia meaning hand work) is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment. ... Trauma can : A serious and often body-altering physical injury, such as the removal of a limb. ... According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), one should distinguish between pain and nociception. ... Scar after recent surgery on the left forearm A scar results from the biologic process of wound repair in the skin and other tissues of the body. ... Cardiac surgery is surgery on the heart, typically to correct congenital heart disease or the complications of ischaemic heart disease or valve problems caused by endocarditis. ...

Due to these advantages, there is currently a powerful trend towards the development and adoption of more minimally invasive procedures.

Minimally-invasive angiography showing the vascular catheter and a stent inserted into an artery

Special medical equipment may be used, such as fiber optic cables, miniature video cameras and special surgical instruments handled via tubes inserted into the body through small openings in its surface. The images of the interior of the body are transmitted to an external video monitor and the surgeon has the possibility of making a diagnosis, visually identifying internal features and acting surgically on them. Post stent angiography (Courtesy GE Systems) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Post stent angiography (Courtesy GE Systems) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Medical devices. ... Fiber Optic strands An optical fiber in American English or fibre in British English is a transparent thin fiber for transmitting light. ... A video camera can be classified two ways: Professional video cameras, such as those used in television production Camcorders used by amateurs This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Surgeon excising an arrow from a wounded soldier, Stele from Herculaneum, Rome, 1 BC A surgical instrument is a specially designed tool or device for performing specific actions of carrying out desired effects during a surgery or operation, such as modifying biological tissue, or to provide access or viewing it. ... Nineteen inch (48 cm) CRT computer monitor A computer display, monitor or screen is a computer peripheral device capable of showing still or moving images generated by a computer and processed by a graphics card. ... Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ...

Many medical procedures are considered minimally invasive, such as hypodermic injection, air-pressure injection, subdermal implants, endoscopy, percutaneous surgery, laparoscopic surgery, arthroscopic surgery, cryosurgery, coronary catheterization, angioplasty, permanent spinal and brain electrodes, stereotactic surgery, radioactivity-based medical imaging methods, such as gamma camera, Positron emission tomography and SPECT (single photon emission tomography). Related procedures are image-guided surgery ,robotic surgery and interventional radiology. A syringe consists of a plunger fitted to a tube, called the barrel, which has a small opening on one end. ... A subdermal implant is form of body modification, a foreign object surgically implanted beneath the skin. ... Endoscopy means looking inside and refers to looking inside the human body for medical reasons. ... In surgery, percutaneous pertains to any medical procedure where access to inner organs or other tissue is done via needle-puncture of the skin, rather than by using an open approach where inner organs or tissue are exposed (typically with the use of a scalpel). ... Laparoscopic surgery, also called keyhole surgery (when natural body openings are not used), bandaid surgery, or minimally invasive surgery (MIS), is a surgical technique. ... Arthroscopic surgery, also known as arthroscopy, is the process where a joint is operated on using an arthroscope, a small fibre optic camera. ... Cryosurgery is the application of extreme cold to destroy abnormal or diseased tissue. ... A coronary catheterization is a minimally invasive procedure to access the coronary circulation and blood filled chambers of the heart using a catheter. ... Angioplasty is the mechanical, hydraulic dilation of an artery lumen which has been narrowed, sometimes totally obstructed, generally due to atheroma (the lesion of atherosclerosis). ... Look up spine on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Comparative brain sizes In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ... Alternative meanings: There is also an Electric-type Pokémon named Electrode. ... Stereotactic surgery is a minimally-invasive form of surgical intervention which makes use of a three-dimensional coordinates system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation (removal), biopsy, lesion, injection, stimulation, implantation, etc. ... Radioactivity may mean: Look up radioactivity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A gamma camera is an imaging device, most commonly used as a medical imaging device nuclear medicine. ... Image of a typical positron emission tomography (PET) facility Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine medical imaging technique which produces a three dimensional image or map of functional processes in the body. ... SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. ... Image-guided surgery is the general term used for any surgical procedure where the surgeon uses indirect visualization to operate, i. ... Interventional Radiology (IR) is a subspecialty of Medical imaging (Radiology) in which minimally invasive procedures are performed using image guidance. ...

References

• Minimally invasive heart surgery. Medical Encyclopedia, MedlinePlus.