[Surg Endosc (2005) 19: 958–963, DOI: 10.1007/s00464-004-2118-2]

F. Schwoebel’s name was misspelled in the published version of this article. In addition, the notification “C. A. Gitzelmann and J. Hamacher both contributed equally to the work” was inadvertently omitted from the title page of the article. The publisher regrets the error.