Thoracoscopic surgery for symptomatic congenital lung malformations in neonates: a retrospective study of 36 cases

To summarize and analyse the efficacy of minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery for neonatal symptomatic congenital lung malformations (CLMs).

The clinical data of 36 newborns (aged < = 28 days) with symptomatic CLMs who underwent thoracoscopic surgery at Foshan Women and Children's Hospital from April 2017 to May 2023 were retrospectively analysed.

Among the 36 patients, 33 had neonatal pneumonia before the operation, 8 had tachypnea with or without respiratory distress at birth, 3 had weak breathing and cyanosis requiring assisted ventilation and 1 had mediastinal displacement due to large lung lesions. Lobectomy was performed in 6 CPAM patients and 7 patients with extralobar sequestration, and lung-sparing resection was performed in 13 CPAM patients and 10 patients with intralobar sequestration. The median surgical incision length was 1.4 cm (1.3-6.0 cm), the median operative blood loss was 2 ml (1-20 ml), and the median operative time was 132 min (33-220 min).

Thoracoscopic surgery for symptomatic CLMs can achieve good clinical results in neonates, and lung-sparing resection may be feasible.