Part 1 Basic considerations: laparoscopic surgery - rationale, results, reply to critics; preliminaries - inserting instruments, positioning the patient, trocars and monitors; principles and uses of electrosurgery; techniques for ligating and suturing tissues; complications; laparoscopic anatomy and dissection of the pelvis and retroperitoneum; the ureter; basic laparoscopic surgical techniques; single puncture techniques - rationale and results. Part 2 Laparoscopic hysterectomy: indications, classification, controversies; the extraperitoneal technique; subtotal hysterectomy; laparoscopic hysterectomy techniques for the large uterus. Part 3 Operations for benign gynaecologic disease: adnexal masses and ovarian cysts; ectopic pregnancy; endometriosis, infection, and infertility; fibroids and myomectomy; incontinence and colposuspension; pelvic pain and pre-sacral neurectomy. Part 4 Oncologic procedures: laparoscopic management of gynaecological malignancies - overview; laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy; laparoscopic aortic lymphadenectomy; laparoscopic-vaginal radical hysterectomy. Part 5 Miscellaneous topics: credentialing and training guidelines; role of randomized trials in laparoscopic surgery.
