Endoscopic surgery in children and neonates: to be or not to be

August 28th 1963 Martin Luther King spoke the legendary words: “I have a dream”. January 20th 2009, almost 46 years later, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first colored president of the United States. Today another dream has come true. With the opening of the completely renewed OR complex in the Wilhelmina Children’s hospital we can truly set off as a “Center of Excellence” for endoscopic surgery in children and neonates, with top referent patient care, education and research in the field of endoscopic surgery, and not only for the Department of Pediatric Surgery, but for all pediatric surgical specialties. This all started a mere 22 years ago, when, together with Klaas Bax, we recognized the importance of smaller scars, less pain, quicker recovery, fewer postoperative complications and a better quality of life. Since then more than 60 peer reviewed papers, directly related to endoscopic surgery in children and neonates were published, many of them nowadays still being referred to as first publication. After a first Symposium on “Sense and Non-sense” in endoscopic surgery in children in 1995, in the past two days we have organized a Symposium called “Endoscopic Surgery in Children and Neonates: to Be or Not to Be”, evaluating which endoscopic procedures have gained wide acceptance and which have not.