Today, the 29th of December, 2022, the medical fraternity is observing Paediatric Surgery Day with the theme of “ Your Paediatric Surgeon – The safest option for your Child’s Surgery”, as the message is being conveyed by the “The Indian association of Paediatric Surgeons” for a greater public health awareness & initiatives.
Pediatric surgery is not just surgery in small adults but it is a distinct branch that only caters to the surgical needs of these tiny tots which differ from adults in their physiologies and pathologies. The surgeries are best performed by trained pediatric surgeons in a conducive environment suitable for newborns and small children with meticulous care provided by a complete team comprising of pediatric anaesthesiologists, neonatologists, pediatricians, intensivists & nurses alike. This is being relentlessly done in over 1500 pediatric surgeries per year over the last 15 years at our tertiary care centre, KLE’s Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC, Belagavi.
The surgeries in children are mainly for “Birth Defects” which are congenital anomalies presenting at birth, needing complete workup, and fine and delicate surgeries for their correction. The outcomes are on an ever-improving trend of survival even in less than a 1 kg newborn operated for multiple major birth defects over last few decades.
Pediatric surgery also caters to emergencies in children like foreign body ingestion, inhalation into airways, other abdominal complex gastro-intestinal, broncho-pulmonary & genito-urological conditions dealt with by even minimal invasive or endoscopic surgeries(keyhole surgeries) to name a few. There is a paradigm shift from open to laparoscopic/thoracoscopic surgeries & multi staged to single-stage surgeries in children lately with excellent results, as explained by Dr Santosh. B Kurbet, Professor, Paediatric Surgery, JNMC & KLE Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC, Belagavi. He also explains that Paediatric Surgery is the only true general surgical super specialty branch not because it is about the treatment of specific organs or systems but provides for the complete care from fetus to maturation, hence making the general public and allied medical fraternity aware that surgery in children, even newborns is safe with excellent immediate and long term outcomes in the hands of pediatric surgeons.
The efforts & work of the pediatric surgery department over the years have been appreciated for providing excellent care for children of all cadres of society & even free for underprivileged children under various government schemes, by Dr.(Col) M. Dayananda, Medical Director, KLEs Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC, Dr N S Mahantshetti, Principal, JNMC and Dr Prabhakar Kore, Chairman, & Directors of KLE Society.
