Paediatric Surgery
Nature of the work
Paediatric surgery is the branch of medicine
that deals with the diseases, trauma and malfunctions of the
childhood years, spanning the foetal to teenage period.
Working in paediatric surgery
Children may be operated on by surgeons
trained in 'adult' surgical specialties, or by a surgeon who has
been trained specifically as a paediatric surgeon. Many ‘adult’
surgical specialties are involved in the surgical care of children,
including:
- general surgery
- urology
- otolaryngology
- orthopaedic surgery
- ophthalmic surgery
- plastic surgery
- oral surgery.
These surgeries are undertaken mainly in
district general hospitals. Surgeons involved deal mostly with
adult patients and usually will not have received much specialised
paediatric training. In addition, non-specialist paediatric surgery
may include the management of minor common problems such as hernia,
circumcision or undescended testis.
Another element of the role of the paediatric
surgeon is that they will have a high amount of contact with/and
counselling of parents.
Specialist paediatric surgery includes:
- neonatal surgery (mostly the surgery of congenital
abnormalities)
- major intestinal surgery of infants and children
- major trauma surgery
- children’s cancer surgery
- paediatric urology.
Common procedures / interventions
Common procedures include:
- head and neck surgery (cysts, tumours, etc.)
- thoracic surgery (oesophageal, lung and bronchial
anomalies)
- abdominal surgery
- operations of kidneys, bladder and ureters
- correction of external genitalia
- treatment of anorectal anomalies
- treatment for trauma.
Associated sub specialties
Associated sub specialties are:
- thoracic surgery
- urology
- upper and lower gastrointestinal tract oncology
- orthopaedics.
Further information
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