Children and babies need a specialist paediatric surgeon

Consultant Paediatric Surgeon Niall Jones explains how minimal access surgery, such as the laparoscopic procedures he describes is now accepted as the best and safest way to operate on babies and children.The types of condition that babies and small children most commonly require surgery for includes the following:

Inguinal hernia - Both boys and girls often present with groin swellings known as inguinal hernias.

Undescended testicle - Again, this is quite a common occurrence in babies.  When the testicle is easily palpated, but is not in the scrotum, then a routine ‘orchidopexy’ can be performed,

Acute appendicitis - This is the most common reason for emergency surgery in children.

Gallbladder stones - These are not as common in children as in adults and tend to be associated with blood disorders such as Sickle Cell disease.

Fundoplication - Children occasionally have very severe vomiting (gastro-oesophageal reflux), which causes chest infections and failure to thrive.

Consultant Paediatric Surgeon Niall Jones explains how minimal access surgery, such as the laparoscopic procedures he describes is now accepted as the best and safest way to operate on babies and children.  This special group of patients has their whole lives ahead of them and there is no longer any need for them to have to live with the scars of ‘open’ operations performed in their childhood.