Minimal Invasive Surgery in Newborns and Infants: Northern Cyprus Experience

BACKGROUND/AIMS Pediatric minimal invasive surgery (MIS) is a relatively recent approach in Northern Cyprus, where it is being performed for less than a decade. This is the first study reflecting our initial experience with MIS in newborns and infants. MATERIAL and METHODS The case records of all laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures performed on children younger than 1 year by two pediatric surgeons at two different hospitals (university hospital and state hospital) during 2012-2017 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22 for Macintosh. The descriptive statistics are presented as frequencies, percentages, and means. To determine the relationship between principal variables and other continuous variables, Pearson correlation test was used. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS The hospital records of 18 patients [15 (83.3%) boys and 3 (16.7%) girls] were included in the study. The mean age at the time of procedure was 5 months 10 days (I day-II months). The surgical procedure was gastrointestinal in 9 (50%), urologic in 5 (28%), gynecologic in 2 (11%), and thoracic in 2 (11%) cases. The mean operative time was 74 (15-355) min. The operative time and hospitalization time both showed a tendency to increase in patients who were younger, but these findings were not statistically significant. Postoperative feeding was started at a mean 1.9 (range, 0-7) days. The feeding resumption time was significantly correlated with age (p=0.03). The mean postoperative hospitalization time was 8.7 (range, 0-32) days and the median was 2 days. CONCLUSION The initial experience from our patients shows results similar to those reported in the literature that MIS in infants is a safe and efficient option, even in low-populated countries, as long as the procedure is performed by pediatric surgeons who have completed their learning at high-volume centers.