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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Nov 16, 2016; 8(19): 684-689
Published online Nov 16, 2016. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v8.i19.684
Gastrointestinal tract access for urological natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery
Olga Miakicheva, Zachary Hamilton, Alp T Beksac, Sean W Berquist, Abd-elrahman Hassan, Marc Holden, Ithaar H Derweesh
Olga Miakicheva, Zachary Hamilton, Alp T Beksac, Sean W Berquist, Abd-elrahman Hassan, Marc Holden, Ithaar H Derweesh, Department of Urology, UC San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA 92093-0987, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this paper with conception and design of study, literature review, drafting, critical revision and editing and approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Ithaar H Derweesh, Department of Urology, UC San Diego School of Medicine, 3855 Health Sciences Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0987, United States. iderweesh@gmail.com
Telephone: +1-858-8226187 Fax: +1-858-8226188
Received: April 27, 2016
Peer-review started: April 28, 2016
First decision: July 20, 2016
Revised: August 8, 2016
Accepted: September 13, 2016
Article in press: September 18, 2016
Published online: November 16, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Gastrointestinal (transgastric and transrectal) access is technically feasible for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) in a number of major urological procedures, and is an attractive alternative with similar outcomes and distinct advantages compared to transvaginal NOTES. The recent adaptation of robotic technology to transrectal NOTES points the way toward future horizons. Further testing and device development is required prior to clinical application.