**2. Methods**

Search strategy:

EmBase and PubMed (Medline) search using keywords (MESH terms): <Minimal access surgery> OR <thoracoscopic surgery> OR <thoracoscopy> AND <esophageal atresia>

Only full text papers in English were included. If more than one paper had been published by the same author or group of authors 2, only the most recent paper was included in order to avoid duplications.

Two authors reviewed all papers and selected those that contained sufficient data on patients characteristics and outcome parameters to enable comparison with reports on open repair of EA-TEF of patients operated after 1995.

Parameters recorded are represented in table 1.

Three categories can be discerned

