Thoracoscopy: a new era for surgical anatomy.

In this new era of minimal access surgery, advances in optics and illumination have established thoracoscopic sympathectomy as a pre-eminent procedure, including a safe and efficient technique for upper limb sympathectomy. The success of thoracoscopy will doubtless ensure that a greater number of these procedures will be carried out and will put some of the daunting technical challenges posed by traditional open surgical procedures to rest. The thoracoscopic era affords the surgical anatomist a new challenge: to move the teaching of living anatomy to a higher level. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.