Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has been used in humans since the turn of last century. It is only in the seventies that VATS could find some applications in children, when Rodgers introduced it to perform small biopsies and decortications.
Today, thanks to continuous technological advances and refinements in techniques, VATS has gained a wide range of indications in children. VATS mainly deals with diseases of the esophagus, the diaphragm and the lungs, including tumors and metastasis, thoracic infections and thoracic wall malformations.
Unquestionable advantages of VATS include improved cosmesis and avoidance of thoracotomies with prevention of functional disorders of the thorax and shoulder girdle.
However, other presumed benefits such as less postoperative pain and fewer complications, still require systematic randomized studies.
The aim of this video is to give a non-exhaustive general overview of various feasible VATS procedures in children.

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