The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Paediatric surgery makes rapid strides

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Paediatric surgery makes rapid strides

Paediatric surgery has made tremendous progress in the last two decades. The collaboration between pediatric surgeon and pediatrician is important in the case of a newborn particularly preterm and term low birth weight babies, where temperature regulation, fluid balance, assessment of metabolic disturbances, respiratory function, management of nutrition etc are vital for a successful outcome.

Congenital malformations have gradually increased as a cause of perinatal and neonatal mortality. Intent and purpose of neonatal surgery is the surgery of congenital malformations. It is therefore important to know something about the frequency of malformations their etiology and the risk of the same defect occurring in subsequent pregnancies.

Not all congenital lesions need to be addressed to immediately. Recognition of these will help both the referring neonatologist/pediatricians and the surgeon and help in overall management of the patient.

Initial management of anorectal malformations and its subsequent reconstructive work constitute a large part of the Pediatric surgical practice. The spectrum of lesion should berecognized and promptly treated.

Pediatric surgeons are experts in the surgical care of newborns. Management of neonatal surgical problems actually defines, in large part, the specialty of "pediatric surgery".

It is what separates us from adult general surgeons who may operate on children but who do not have the expertise in treating newborn surgical problems. Not only is the actual surgical procedure important, but the pre-operative preparation and post-operative management is critical for a successful outcome.

We work closely with our neonatology colleagues to optimize the management and outcome in our patients.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh