LESS (Laparo-Endoscopic Single-Site) surgery is the result of natural evolution of minimally invasive surgery in which the number of small abdominal incisions required to complete the surgery has been reduced to just one incision, usually umbilical. Depending on the indication, this incision can be kept as small as 1.5 cm.

A wide range of procedures is routinely performed via single port access across the fields of general, urologic and gynaecologic surgery. For general surgery this includes cholecystectomy, which has now been completely standardised for LESS in the same way as the 4-port cholecystectomy. In addition colorectal and bariatric procedures are increasingly performed through just one small incision. In urology, certain indications for nephrectomy are suitable for LESS. For gynaecology, any adnexal surgery or hysterectomy may be performed as a LESS procedure.

The key to being able to perform laparoscopic surgery through a small incision at a single site is the use of dedicated ports such as TriPort+, TriPort15 and QuadPort+. The use of the 5 mm deflectable tip videolaparoscope (Flex5) and dedicated (curved) instruments (LS HiQ+) greatly facilitate LESS surgery.