Published online Oct 21, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i39.14263
Revised: February 22, 2014
Accepted: June 14, 2014
Published online: October 21, 2014
Processing time: 325 Days and 11.6 Hours
Alimentary tract duplications are rare congenital lesions normally diagnosed in newborns and children that can occur anywhere from the mouth to the anus and have a reported incidence of approximately 1 in 4500 life births. Symptoms and clinical presentation vary greatly. The presentation varies according to age and location. The treatment finally is surgical; total resection when possible should be the aim of the intervention. In pediatric surgery minimally invasive surgical procedures became more and more important over the last decades. In consequence the operative procedure on alimentary tract duplications changed in this manner. We review on case reports and clinical reports on minimally invasive surgery in the treatment of alimentary tract duplications, determine the importance of minimally invasive techniques in the treatment of this rare entity and rule out that further studies in the field should be performed.
Core tip: Alimentary tract duplications are rare congenital lesions which treatment is surgical. In the last two decades minimally invasive surgery became very important in the field of pediatric abdominal surgery. With this review we want to give the reader an overview on recent literature reporting on minimally invasive surgery in alimentary tract duplications.