Peadiatric Surgery

Minimally invasive surgery, which includes laparoscopy and thoracoscopy, is a group of techniques that allow surgeons to perform operations through very small incisions. A tiny video camera is placed through one incision, and working instruments are passed through others; the surgeon can then perform an operation by watching a video screen while manipulating the instruments. Our program of minimally invasive surgery has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and we continue to expand the uses of this innovative approach.

The procedures for which we have used minimally invasive techniques include:

Advances in video technology have enabled surgeons to perform complex procedures without the traditional unsightly and painful incisions of the past. The use of Minimal Access techniques in infants and children requires surgical and anesthetic expertise, as well as instruments specifically made for conditions common in infants and children.

During the last 2 years, we have performed more than 100 Minimal Access procedures on infants and children, from the newborn period through adolescence, with a dramatic reduction in hospital stay and need for postoperative narcotics. We have used Minimal Access techniques for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

These have included correction of acute appendicitis, pyloric stenosis, colon pull-through procedures, removal of the spleen and gall bladder, undescended testis and varicocele, ovarian cysts, abdominal and chest tumor biopsy and staging, drainage of serious chest infection after pneumonia, insertion of dialysis and shunt tubes, and treatment of children with chronic lower abdominal pain.Laparoscopy is also being used to evaluate the "silent" (opposite) side of children undergoing inguinal hernia repair.