Asia Pacific NOTES: Where are we?

Over the past decade, the development of natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) has progressed from preclinical animal studies to clinical human trials in Asia. Due to the difference in culture and disease prevalence, most of these human studies focused on NOTES-related procedures, including endoscopic full-thickness resection and peroral endoscopic myotomy as well as submucosal endoscopic tumor resection. This article reviews the research works on NOTES originated from Asia to obtain insight into future development.