Minimally invasive surgery for inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) could lead to the complexity of intraabdominal pathology and patients′ malnutrition, which might greatly increase the risk of operation. Laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery is playing an important role in the treatment of IBD, with the advantages of faster postoperative recovery, shorter duration of hospital stay and lower incidence of postoperative complications. And some new techniques for IBD have been reported in the western countries, such as singleincision laparoscopic surgery, natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery, robot assisted laparoscopic surgery and so on. However, the new techniques are not widely used in  China, and it is necessary to carry out a series of clinical practices, which should be carefully selected for IBD patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery.