Lessons Learned from Traditional NOTES: A Historical Perspective.

The idea of natural orifice surgery was conceived by Kantsevoy and Kalloo in the late 1990s. A group of surgeons formed the Apollo Group in 1997. Their vision and mission were to impact the practice of therapeutic endoscopy through innovation in techniques and technologies. The concept of natural orifice surgery was introduced at the initial meeting held on Kiawah Island, South Carolina in 1998. The original concept of flexible endoscopic surgery involved per-oral passage of a flexible endoscope into the stomach followed by entrance into the peritoneal cavity via a gastrostomy.