ABSTRACT
Objective To study the clinical advantages of modified incision for PDA interruption under video-assisted thoracoscopy. Methods Sixty patients suffering PDA were operated on by the modified incision technique through the left subaxillary 3rd interspace 2.0cm-2.5cm mini-incision as manipulation incision and the front axillary line of the same interspace 0.4cm-1.0cm thoracoscope incision the operative difficulty required surgical time surgical field exposure,complications,postoperative pain and,cosmetic and surgical results were compared with those of the conventional PDA operation. Results The operation on the 60 cases were all successful.Actual intra-thoracic operation duration was (20.39?9.63)min.Due to the minor surgical trauma,the patients were able to ambulate two days after the surgery.Only eleven patients needed analgesia after the operation.Heart murmur completely disappeared postoperatively.No complications occurred.Postoperative echocardiogram showed no residual or recurrent shunt ,even in three years follow-up. Conclusions The modified incision for PDA interruption with the video-assisted thoracoscopy causes minim surgical trauma and is a safe and simplified surgical technique.