Minimally Invasive Surgery Choice: What, Why, When, and Whom

Minimally invasive surgery has the advantage to be better tolerated by frail elderly patients. The reasons to choose a mini-invasive approach can be synthetized by a faster recover which it is strictly linked with a shorter in-hospital stay. However, these patients cannot always be treated with a minimally invasive approach. In the present chapter, we highlight the theoretical work-up needed to correctly select the older and frail patients for a noninvasive approach. Furthermore, we analyzed the current literature in order to indicate, among the two mini-invasive approaches, i.e., laparoscopic or robotic, the best option for the treatment of upper or lower gastrointestinal neoplasms, and hepatobiliopancreatic tumors. Synthetically, this selection should be tailored on the patient conditions’ and on the tumor stage, but at present no conclusive data support the superiority of a robotic approach over a laparoscopic one.