Pediatric Surgeons
Specialists:
Pediatric surgeons are doctors who specialize in treating children. They’re trained to do operations on infants, children, and young adults.
The process of becoming a pediatric surgeon is one of the longest and most difficult in the medical field. If your child needs surgery, they’ll be in the care of some of the most specialized, trained, and experienced surgeons around.
Why do you need to see them?
Children and teens may see a pediatric surgeon for things like:
- Problems that they were born with (congenital)
- Tumour or cancer removal
- Injuries
- Transplants
- A colonoscopy or endoscopy to look at the digestive tract
What do they do?
Children aren’t like adult patients. They can’t always describe what’s going on, so it can be challenging for doctors to communicate with them about medical issues. Depending on their age, they might not even realize what’s happening.
Pediatric surgeons know how to make children feel comfortable and communicate with them. Pediatric surgeons are also involved in diagnosing conditions and in caring for children before and after surgery. They may specialize in one of four main types of care:
- Prenatal. Pediatric surgeons work with radiologists to spot problems while a child is in the womb and plan corrective surgeries after birth. Prenatal surgery, or an operation on a fetus, is a newer practice that is available at some of the larger medical centres.
- Neonatal. Neonatal surgery involves the repair of congenital disabilities, or birth defects, in newborns.
- Trauma. Trauma surgeries happen when a child has a moderate to severe injury such as a fracture, cut, burn, or internal injury. This is one of the main reasons why children get intensive medical care.
- Pediatric oncology. Pediatric oncologists treat children who have cancer or benign (noncancerous) growths.
Physician consultation is a good opportunity and you should be prepared for it.
- Carry all necessary medical records for the discussion. It helps in better understanding your heart condition and avoids repetition of diagnostic tests.
- Make sure you discuss your past medical history, surgical history, family history, and medications that you are taking.
- Discuss about your lifestyle habits, dietary habits and also about your profession. Your lifestyle and nature of job may be associated with the risk for cardiac diseases.