Dear Authors of the Turkish Journal of Surgery,
We are very pleased to present the first issue of Turkish Journal of Surgery in 2021. An issue is the “end product” of a long and exhausting work of the authors, editorial staff, reviewers and publishing team. The articles you read sometimes have a long history with numerous revisions and improvements upon the suggestions of the reviewers. In this issue, we are glad to open our pages to valuable studies from various disciplines of the surgery.
The term “minimally invasive surgery” was indicated only two decades ago as a new innovative surgical technique whose role was not yet well defined in the daily practice of the surgeons. Subsequent to the enormous worldwide success of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, minimally invasive surgery has become an inseparable part of surgery. Currently, there is not an operation which is not technically “doable” with minimally invasive techniques.
In the March 2021 issue of the Turkish Journal of Surgery, we have four interesting studies on different fields of minimally invasive surgery. A study from the United Kingdom is about hernia surgery. Nahid et al. report their experience on laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgery in regards of two different fixation methods (1). The results of the study show that a mesh application without fixation may be a reliable technique.
Another interesting study of Mehraj et al. is from India (2). The authors report their experience on transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) in benign and malignant rectum tumors. The role of TAMIS for the management of rectum lesions is not yet well established and we do hope that interesting -and promising- results of this study would be helpful for those interested in colorectal surgery.
Another current hot topic in minimally invasive surgery is the laparoscopic gastric surgery. After the introduction of new devices, together with the growing experience in laparoscopic obesity surgery, there is an increasing tendency now to treat gastric tumors laparoscopically. In this present issue, you have the chance to read two studies from Turkey. Çiçek et al. present their experience in a very specific issue, the laparoscopic management of remnant gastric cancer (3). We do think that the experience of the center on this rare condition is worth reading. Another noteworthy study compares open vs. laparoscopic surgery for the management of gastric cancer (4).
In brief, our readers interested in minimally invasive surgery would find motivating information through these studies. Of course, there are much more to read across the pages of the March 2021 issue.
On behalf of the editorial team, we wish you a good start for 2021 and we are impatient to review your manuscripts. As I always say: please submit your best work to the Turkish Journal of Surgery!
Best regards,
Kaya SARIBEYOĞLU
Editor,
Turkish Journal of Surgery