Recent progress in laparoscopic liver resection.

Laparoscopic liver resection has been performed in a limited number of centers, but worldwide the adoption and worldwide progress of the procedure have been slow since the 1990s, mainly because of the difficulty of controlling the hemorrhage during dissection of the hepatic parenchyma. In the late 2000s, technological innovations, improvement in surgical technique, and surgeons' accumulation of experience have led to more rapid progress of laparoscopic liver resection. Now, laparoscopic liver resection is able to be done by several approaches, for all locations of the tumors, for several diseases, with several types of resection, not only for tumors but for liver transplantation, with equivalent or better results compared with open surgery. Laparoscopic liver resection has been a standard procedure for left lateral sectionectomy or peripheral resection of the anterior liver, and other types of laparoscopic liver resection are expected to be standard in the near future.