Pediatric Surgery

Paediatric surgery is the specialty of surgery for children, from newborn babies to teenagers. It treats common childhood conditions such as hernias, undescended testes, hypospadias and appendicitis, and it corrects birth defects of the digestive tract, the abdominal wall and the diaphragm, including oesophageal atresia, Hirschsprung disease and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Children are not small adults: their anatomy, body chemistry, medicine doses and emotional needs differ, so operations are done by surgeons trained for this age group, working with anaesthetists, nurses and play specialists who care for children every day. Families travel for it to reach a team experienced with a rare or complex condition, to get a second opinion before a major operation, or to have a planned procedure done within a short, organised stay.