In an effort to assess the contemporary position of miniinvasive surgery in children the authors addressed a total of 10 departments. They received replies from nine. The report includes thus all important Czech departments concerned with child surgery incl. miniinvasive operations. The group comprises a total of 1,191 laparoscopic operations and 30 thoracoscopies performed between 1994 and February 1997. The total number of complications was 1.1%. The mean percentage of conversions was 3.1%. The authors did not record any major complications with serious harm to the patient.