Added: 01/24/2006 |
Common Examples of Pediatric Surgery SpecialtiesThe variety of pediatric surgery specialties is wide but in this article we focus on two of them: pediatric otolaryngology and pediatric abdominal surgery.
Children's doctors deal with many of great pediatric surgery specialties in otolaringology. Among the most frequent children's maladies are foreign bodies of the airway, adenoids and tonsillitis. The latter is often healed by the surgery to remove the tonsils. To treat chronic tonsillitis children's surgeons perform tonsillectomy, but only when medicinal, supportive, medicinal measures bring no effect. Each child is different and it is impossible to give a precise number of infections required before tonsillectomy is considered.
Sometimes tonsillectomy is an obligatory procedure and it must be done urgently. Such cases occur when the tonsils are so enlarged that they obstruct normal breathing. Big tonsils can also cause disruptive sleep apnea and in these cases they are removed. Patients who carry diphtheria (rare nowadays) should certainly undergo tonsillectomy.
A tonsillectomy is done under general anesthetic. The capsule of tissue surrounds the tonsil. The doctor uses special surgical instruments to take out the tonsil by dividing that capsule and the nearby tissue of the throat.
If the surgery is that simple, especially if compared to some other pediatric surgery specialties, one might think, what are the risks of tonsillectomy? Tonsillectomy is done using a general anesthetic, and there is always a little risk of problems with the anesthesia. The main complication related to the tonsillectomy is bleeding in the area where the tonsils are removed. It can happen right after the surgery or up to 7 days. But only about 6% of the patients having this post-operative problem have to go back to the operative room to stop the bleeding.
However, the best way in case of your child's illness is to contact your own otolaryngologist and ask him/her questions you may have connected with medical care. Each individual situation is different, pediatric surgery specialties are complicated and general answers are hard to give in many aspects of medicine.
As for other pediatric surgery specialties, the technologic uprising that has varied the approach pediatric abdominal surgery is now carried out started with the subtraction of gallbladders and is now developed to operations on every part in the peritoneum.
The rewards of laparoscopic surgery come from reducing the pain of access to inner organs. By avoiding a long cut through the abdominal muscular wall, many problems that follow pediatric abdominal surgery are expelled. It has become apparent that traditional open method brings much more suffering. After a laparoscopic surgery young patients can breathe better and cough more lightly. The necessity for strong painkillers is considerably diminished so that the nausea, exhaustion and shakiness they cause are practically eliminated. There's a possibility of returning to ordinary activities in a little while needed after normal surgery.
However, not all abdominal operations should be made with a laparoscope. The choice to experience abdominal surgery should be taken seriously, and the benefits and risks of the pediatric abdominal surgery need to be considered individually. Pre-operative discussions between patients and surgeons include the suggestions for surgery, the pre-operative expectations, the probability of certain outcomes from the surgery, and, of course, which method to use: the traditional open approach or the laparoscopic method.
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