25/03/2025
Why does society need a Pediatric Surgeon?
CHILDREN ARE NOT SIMPLY SMALL ADULTS.
A child’s body has different medical and surgical needs from that of adults. And these needs also differ during different stages of life. A newborn needs a totally different care as compared to a small child (toddler) while a pre-school and a school-going child may have another different set of requirements.
Children suffer from different set of diseases as compared to adults, like congenital problems, which are unique to children. Examples include malformations of food pipe (like Esophageal atresia-Tracheoesophageal fistula), malformations of urinary tract (like Hypospadais), malformations of re**um and a**s (Anorectal malformations) etc.
Most of the times, the treatment strategy and the urgency of treatment vastly differ in a child as compared to adults. For example, a child with hernia will require surgical treatment on a relatively urgent basis as there are more chances of the hernia getting complicated leading to life-threatening complications, need for extensive and more complicated surgery and life-long implications on fertility. Also, children don’t require mesh insertion for hernia repair as compared to adults.
Children have less body reserves and poor immunity and rapidly deteriorate in response to infections and other disease processes requiring early surgical interventions in skin and soft tissue infections like abscess. The pus and infection formed in these cases rapidly eats up body tissues and leads to dreaded complications if not removed in time.
Also, extensive and specialized training is required for doctor to be able to treat complicated surgical problems of childhood. Different kind of set-up, infrastructure, instrumentation, anesthesia set-up and para-medical staff are required to cater to the specialized and delicate needs of children.
