Over the last 30 years, minimally invasive surgery was proved to be a safe and effective alternative to standard “open” surgery for the treatment of different benign and malignant diseases. Indeed for some conditions such as symptomatic gallstones, gastroesophageal reflux diseases, morbid obesity, and appendicitis, it is now considered the “gold standard” approach.

Most of the advantages of this surgical technique are related to the reduction of surgical trauma which finally leads to reduction of postoperative complications and faster recovery and return to normal activities without compromising patients’ safety or effectiveness of the procedures even in case of malignancy.

More recently new “ultra” minimally invasive techniques have been proposed, in the quest for further reduction of surgical trauma and residual scarring to the patient; among them, single port or reduced port surgery, minilaparoscopy, and natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), although with some technological limitations, seem to be the most promising alternative to standard multiport endoscopic surgery.

With this special issue we invite authors from different countries to contribute original articles, describing both experimental and clinical results or new technological development in the field, as well review articles. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Technological limitation and future developments
• Indications and clinical benefits for the patients
• Results from clinical studies
• Surgical techniques
• Preoperative workout and patients’ selections
• Surgeon accreditations
• Training issues
• Cost

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mis/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: