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Joseph Lister was the pioneer of antiseptic surgery (Fig. 1). In the late 19th century, postoperative sepsis accounted for the death of almost half of the patients undergoing major surgery. Building on the work of Pasteur, Lister promoted the use of carbolic acid when operating. Antiseptic surgery became the norm and earned him the title ‘Father of Modern Surgery’. Just as antiseptic surgery revolutionised what was possible then, so has laparoscopy positioned us in ‘exciting times’ today. Urologists have admittedly been relatively late adopters of laparoscopy. Ironically, our beginnings as a specialty made minimally invasive surgery (MIS) possible via Max Nitze’s invention, also in the late 19th century, of the cystoscope (Fig. 2). Nitze, a Berliner, ‘established the specialty of urology and [has] a legitimate claim as the father of urology’. Nitze’s genius lay in his lifelong pursuit of better methods to diagnose and treat patients with urological diseases and in teaching others the practical use and value of cystoscopy. Summary Following on from the first paediatric laparoscopic nephrectomy in 1992, the growth of minimally invasive ablative and reconstructive procedures in paediatric urology has been dramatic. This article reviews the literature related to laparoscopic dismembered pyeloplasty, optimising posterior urethral valve ablation and intravesical laparoscopic ureteric reimplantation.