Laparoscopic colectomy, endoscopic surgery or minimally invasive surgery are all the terms used for the same concept: instead of a large incision, small buttonhole openings are used. Through these small incisions specially designed instruments and a camera a are placed to allow many operations which have been traditionally done with larger incisions. This technique can be used at the beginning of the surgery to assess if a patient's cancer is resectable before subjecting the patient to a larger incision. It can also be used for the full surgical treatment for diseases such as rectal prolapse, and for inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis and for removal of colonic polyps which are too large to be removed by a colonoscope. Smaller incisions frequently leads to less pain and quicker recovery. As each disease is as unique as each patient, individual consideration will be made on a case by case basis.