Minimally invasive surgery for the management of congenital diaphragmatic patology

INTRODUCTION: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) plays a major role in pediatric surgery. We reported our experience in MIS management of congenital diaphragmatic patology (CDP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The authors collected date on children who underwent a MIS for CDP repair from 1998 until 2006. The following features have been taken into account: lesion type, approach, surgical technique, complications, hospital stay and time of follow-up. RESULTS: From 1998 until 2006 11 patients (age range: 2 days-6 years and 6 months) with CDP had undergone an attempt at MIS repair: 6 patients with posterolateral hernia (36.4%), 4 with Morgagni hernia ( 54.5%) and a congenital diaphragmatic eventration case (9%). Eight patients 8 (72.7%) were treated using laparoscopy and three cases using thoracoscopy. Three patients were treated as newborns (27.2%). Four patients presented complications (36.3%): two patients who were repaired initially laparoscopically were converted to a transabdominally approach and two patients had recurrent herniation, which were repaired with MIS. Actually all cases were asymptomatic with a mean time of follow-up of 1 year and 8 months (range: 3 months-two years). CONCLUSIONS: MIS is a feasible, safe, easy to perform and efficient approach to repair CDP but it needs selection criteria for successful outcome.