Thoracoscopic surgery for esophageal atresia.

This review centers on the thoracoscopic management of esophageal atresia (EA) and distal tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF). The first thoracoscopic repair of EA was performed by Rothenberg and Lobe in Berlin in 1999 just prior to an IPEG meeting. Since that time, the largest report describing the use of thoracoscopy for EA/TEF repair came in 2005 with a multi-national, multi-institutional retrospective review from six institutions around the world. The outcomes reported were quite good and very comparable to large series of open operations that had been previously reported. This review will describe a single surgeon's technique for thoracoscopic repair of EA/TEF. In addition, further controversies regarding the usefulness of preoperative bronchoscopy, ligation of the distal TEF, and type of suture used for the esophageal anastomosis will also be discussed. Finally, there is a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the thoracoscopic approach.