title: [Hardship of development of mini-invasive surgery: the hard history of sympathectomy].
abstract: The authors review the history of sympathectomy in the past more than fifty years and divide the whole course into four stages: thoracotomy, attempting toward mini-invasion, conventional thoracoscopy and video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS). Emphasis is laid on the difficult course of how this procedure has developed step by step from its original embarrassed 'large incision, small surgery' status to the modern mini-invasion surgery. The fact has proved that it is the modern natural science particularly the development and utilization of modern instruments that has notably promoted, and will continuously promote, the whole surgery toward mini-invasion.
authors.affiliation: Center of Mini-invasive Thoracic Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery, People's Hospital, Peking University, Beijing 100044.
authors.forename: Yan-Guo
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D013562:Sympathectomy; D013906:Thoracoscopy