The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) is a non-profit organization of surgeons. It describes itself thus: SAGES represents a worldwide community of surgeons that can bring minimal access surgery, endoscopy and emerging techniques to patients in every country. The mission of the group is: to provide leadership in surgery, particularly gastrointestinal and endoscopic surgery, to optimize patient care through education, research and innovation.

It held its first Scientific Session, in tandem with Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University is a private health sciences university in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. The university consists of six constituent colleges and schools, Jefferson Medical College, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, Jefferson School of Health...

 in Philadelphia in September, 1983, and its first independent meeting in Williamsburg in 1986. With support from Springer Verlag, publisher of Surgical Endoscopy

Surgical Endoscopy

Surgical Endoscopy is an international peer-reviewed medical journal published by Springer. It is the official journal of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery ....

, the 1st World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery was held in Berlin, Germany in 1988

Publications

• SCOPE: The Official SAGES Newsletter. Published quarterly.
• Mini-SCOPE: A quarterly e-newsletter describing the Society's activities.
• Surgical Endoscopy
  Surgical Endoscopy
  Surgical Endoscopy is an international peer-reviewed medical journal published by Springer. It is the official journal of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery ....
  
  : The official monthly journal of SAGES.

• Guidelines on "Guidelines for Granting of Privileges for Surgeons in Flexible Endoscopy" (1987) , ”The Role of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy --Guidelines for Clinical Application” (1990), " Training in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography " (1992), “ Framework For Post Residency Training” (1993), "Guidelines for the Surgical Practice of Telemedicine" (1996), " Bariatric Surgery Guidelines" (2001) ," Revised Guidelines for the Surgical Practice of Telemedicine"(2004), "Revised Guidelines for Surgical Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease" (2004), "New Guidelines for the Clinical Application of Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery" (2004)

• It published its 1st manual Fundamental of Laparoscopy (FLS) in , revised ed. in 2005), and later its 2nd Manual Perioperative Care in Minimally Invasive Surgery (2005). In 2006 it began work on "FES, Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery," a flexible endoscopy companion to FLS