Great laparoscopic surgeons are made, not born. The key is working on the craft and having the right equipment. So says James "Butch" Rosser, MD, FACS, chief of minimally invasive surgery and director of the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. The right equipment starts, of course, with the laparoscopes themselves.

"When I look now at laparoscopes we were happy with just five years ago, I can't believe how we even used the old ones. That's how dramatic the difference is," says Blacksburg, Va., general surgeon David Stoeckle, MD.

Building a better laparoscope
Experts believe these are the key innovations in scope technology over the last few years: