Laparoscopy in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pediatric Malignancy

Thoracoscopic surgery in the management of pediatric malignancies: a multicentric survey of the Italian Society of Videosurgery in Infancy

“…In fact, although not all tumors require surgery, several resectable tumors can be managed successfully and safely via thoracoscopy if the indication is correct [14]. In particular, we believe that pulmonary metastases represent the best indication for thoracoscopy (80% of therapeutic indications of thoracoscopy in our series) if the lesion is peripheral to the lung and if the preoperative CT scan is used to guide the surgeon in locating the lesion [1,3].…”

“…Our group, in collaboration with the pediatric surgery center of Marseille, France, reported the first experiences with biopsies for abdominal and thoracic tumors in 1995 [8]. Nevertheless, the data in the literature regarding the treatment of pediatric malignancies with MIS still refer to small [1,3,21]. In addition, studies focused only on thoracoscopic procedures such as ours are extremely scanty.…”

“…In fact, until a few years ago, it was used only for purposes of diagnosing abdominal and thoracic malignancies in pediatric patients [2,3,7]. Diagnostic biopsies may be obtained safely and accurately using thoracoscopy, with minimal morbidity and at overall costs comparable with those for thoracotomy or even lower [6].…”