Editorial: Pediatric thoracic surgery

In the last decades pediatric thoracic surgery significantly developed, extending minimally invasive approaches such as thoracoscopy to infancy and childhood. This progress is mainly due to the introduction of specific devices for the management of little spaces and little anatomical structures. Pediatric thoracoscopic surgery has increasingly become important in clinical practice and now it represents a well-established approach for infants and children and it is considered, by most thoracic surgeons, as the best choice for many procedures. Pediatric thoracoscopic surgery allows to reduce pain and morbidity and to avoid the longterm consequences of a thoracotomy in an infant or a small child.