Abstract
In extremely preterm babies with type Vogt IIIb oesophageal atresia, the primary operative management can be restricted to a gastrostomy and ligation of the fistula. Some of these patients, however, may not even tolerate a thoracotomy or placement on the operating table. We developed a minimally invasive procedure to prepare and ligate the oesophagus thoracoscopically and perform laparoscopic gastrostomy in a rat model. In 15 operations we observed only one complication. This study implies that after adequate practice, thoracoscopic dissection of the oesophagus with ligation of a tracheo-oesophageal fistula could be performed even in every small infants.
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Kellnar, S., Till, H. & Böhm, R. Thoracoscopic surgery of the oesophagus in rats: a training concept for the treatment of tracheo-oesophageal malformations in preterm infants. Pediatr Surg Int 12, 116–117 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01349975
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01349975