Guidelines of the Italian Society of Videosurgery in Infancy for the minimally invasive treatment of the esophageal atresia.

The SIVI (Italian Society of Videosurgery in Infancy) guidelines are clinical practice guidelines edited and approved by the Society's steering committee. They are the products of a detailed systematic review of the literature, integrated with expert opinion in the field of pediatric minimally invasive surgery. These guidelines are intended to assist the pediatric surgeons experienced or not experienced in minimally invasive surgery, with the goal to inform choices related to the indications, approach, and techniques to use when treating the major pediatric surgical pathologies. Given the complexities of congenital malformations and other pediatric surgical conditions, as well as large variations in available regional health services, we must note that these guidelines are not intended as a cookbook recipe to follow for all possible patients. Rather, the guidelines should serve as a flexible framework, to be used by the physician in concert with the parents, to choose the best approach for each individual patient. Decisions tailored to available scientific knowledge and the needs and desires of the patient's family serve both patient autonomy and medical science. All guidelines are published in this scientific Journal, in order to ensure their availability to all physicians. The Guidelines project has been approved by the SIVI General Assembly of the 2016 Madrid congress. Review of guidelines has been performed by the Steering Committee of SIVI and experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]