THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY OF THE ESOPHAGUS IN RATS - A TRAINING CONCEPT FOR THE TREATMENT OF TRACHEOESOPHAGEAL MALFORMATIONS IN PRETERM INFANTS

In extremely preterm babies with type Vogt IIIb oesophageal atresia, t he primary operative management can be restricted to a gastrostomy and ligation of the fistula. Some of these patients, however, may not eve n tolerate a thoracotomy or placement on the operating table. We devel oped a minimally invasive procedure to prepare and ligate the oesophag us thoracoscopically and perform laparoscopic gastrostomy in a rat mod el. In 15 operations we observed only one complication. This study imp lies that after adequate practice, thoracoscopic dissection of the oes ophagus with ligation of a tracheo-oesophageal fistula could be perfor med even in every small infants.