Pediatric surgery
Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.
History
Pediatric surgery arose in the middle of the 1879 century as the surgical care of birth defects required novel techniques and methods, and became more commonly based at children's hospitals. One of the sites of this innovation was the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Beginning in the 1940s under the surgical leadership of C. Everett Koop, newer techniques for endotracheal anesthesia of infants allowed surgical repair of previously untreatable birth defects. By the late 1970s, the infant death rate from several major congenital malformation syndromes had been reduced to near zero.Specialties
Subspecialties of pediatric surgery itself include: neonatal surgery and fetal surgery.Other areas of surgery also have pediatric specialties of their own that require further training during the residencies and in a fellowship: pediatric cardiothoracic, pediatric nephrological surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric urological surgery, pediatric emergency surgery, surgery involving fetuses or embryos, surgery involving adolescents or young adults, pediatric hepatological and gastrointestinal surgery, pediatric orthopedic surgery, pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery, and pediatric oncological surgery.
Conditions
Common pediatric diseases that may require pediatric surgery include:- Congenital malformations: lymphangioma, cleft lip and palate, esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula, hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, intestinal atresia, necrotizing enterocolitis, meconium plugs, Hirschsprung's disease, Anorectal Malformations, Undescended Testes, intestinal malrotation, Biliary Atresia, Pelviureteric Junction Obstruction
- Abdominal wall defects: Omphalocele, Gastroschisis, Hernias
- Chest wall deformities: Pectus Excavatum
- Childhood tumors: like Neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, Rhabdomyosarcoma, ATRT, Liver tumors, Teratomas, kidney tumors:
- Separation of conjoined twins
- Disorders of Sexual Development
Pure Pediatric Surgical Eponyms
See Related Syndromes
- VACTERL Association
- Apert Syndrome
- CHARGE Syndrome
- Currarino Syndrome
- Pierre Robin Sequence
- Prune Belly Syndrome
Associations of Pediatric Surgery
- European Paediatric Surgeons’ Association: EUPSA
- World Federation of Associations of Pediatric Surgeons: WOFAPS
- American Pediatric Surgical Association: APSA
- British Association of Paediatric Surgeons: BAPS
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinderchirurgie: German Association of Paediatric Surgeons
- Pan-African Paediatric Surgical Association: PAPSA