Introduction
Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a persistent communication between the pulmonary artery and the descending thoracic aorta. In term infants, it closes physiologically within 72 hours after birth. Especially this closure is delayed in preterm infants. PDA is one of the most common congenital anomalies of these neonates (1-3). Persistence of this fetal connection leads to left ventricular volume overload, pulmonary hypertension, increased mechanical ventilatory support, hypotension requiring inotropic support, oliguria/renal failure, or feeding intolerance/failure to gain weight. Surgical closure is considered when medical theraphy fails. In preterm infants surgical closure technique is especially important as you deal with congested lungs. Minimally invasive techniques are more and more used in this manner (4,5). Among different minimally invasive strategies that have emerged in the last decades left anterior minithoracotomy has been recognized as a safe, efficient and less expensive technique (6-9). In this study, we tried to evaluate the effects of the less invasive left anterior mini thoracotomy technique and share our results.