Abstract
In this new era of minimal access surgery, advances in optics and illumination have
established thoracoscopic sympathectomy as a pre-eminent procedure, including a safe and
efficient technique for upper limb sympathectomy. The success of thoracoscopy will doubtless
ensure that a greater number of these procedures will be carried out and will put some
of the daunting technical challenges posed by traditional open surgical procedures to rest. The
thoracoscopic era affords the surgical anatomist a new challenge: to move the teaching of
living anatomy to a higher level.