Safety Assessment for Thoracoscopic Day Case Surgery in Children with Congenital Pulmonary Malformation.

Background: No data exist evaluating the utilization and safety of outpatient thoracoscopy in children. The aim of this study was to investigate the safety of outpatient thoracoscopy and to assess parental opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of a pediatric thoracoscopy outpatient setting.

Methods: A retrospective review of data from patients treated by thoracoscopy for congenital pulmonary malformation between 2013 and 2016 was performed. Study focused on patients who underwent outpatient thoracoscopy. All were placed in a flank position and underwent a three-port (5-mm optical trocar and two 5-mm trocars) thoracoscopy. Insufflation pressure required was 5 mmHg with bilateral lung ventilation. Pain control was provided with multimodal postoperative analgesia and the use of paravertebral block for regional analgesia. No drain was inserted. Outcomes of interest included 30-day overall morbidity, readmission, reoperation, and parental opinions through a phone call questionnaire.

Results: A total of 37 thoracoscopies were identified; 11 (30%) with a median age of 5.3 months (4.2-12.3) were performed as an outpatient procedure (10 sequestration, 1 bronchogenic cyst). Median operating time was 51 minutes (34-87). No conversion and no transfusion occurred. No complications occurred (no morbidity, no readmission, and no reoperation). According to parents' view the outpatient setting has no disadvantages.

Conclusion: This first analysis of a small monocentric dataset demonstrates that pediatric patients can safely undergo thoracoscopy, an outpatient procedure, with a high rate of parental satisfaction.