Thoracoscopic repair of congenital diaphragmatic hernia: a new anatomical reconstructive concept for tension dispersal at primary closure

This study describes a novel thoracoscopic technique for repairing congenital diaphragmatic hernia using rib-anchoring stitches to reorient muscle leaflets and disperse tension at closure. In 34 patients over 7 years, the approach achieved a 16% recurrence rate without synthetic patches, with mean operative time of 76 minutes and hospital stay of 7.6 days.