More than 50 percent of all surgeries in Cuba are performed using minimally invasive techniques, for which 119 centers are providing these services throughout the country, said an expert in Havana.

Dr. Rosalba Roque González, deputy director of the National Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CNCMA), explained to the Cuban News Agency that there are state-of-the-art equipment, technology, and trained personnel.

She explained that Cuba has a training laboratory at the CNCMA, the only one of its kind in the country, for the training of human resources in nine specialties, among them professionals who are residents, specialists, nurses, and others who participate in the preparation and then reproduce those practices in each of their services.

Likewise, the expert highlighted the authorities' political will and efforts to spread these techniques in the country based on the experiences of specialists, both in the institution and at the international level.

Roque Gonzalez explained that in more than 20 years since the of minimally invasive techniques in Cuba, this institution had trained some  4,200 professionals, including doctors, nurses and health technologists, and about 600 professionals from other countries, residents, and specialists.

Minimal access surgery is completed with one or more small incisions instead of a large incision. The surgeon passes a telescope with a video camera through a small incision into a body cavity. The surgeon then views the surgery on a TV monitor. Surgical instruments are then passed through other similar little incisions.