What Surgeries Do Children Get?

Most children don't need surgery, and even for someone in medicine, it's hard for me to name all that many pediatric conditions that require surgical intervention. But since starting pediatric anesthesia, I've found my days quite busy with many short cases. In the ENT room, we do a lot of tonsils and adenoids as well as laryngoscopies to evaluate hoarseness, recurrent croup, and sleep apnea. The urologists perform many circumcisions and kidney surgeries for vesiculoureteral reflux. Plastic surgeons excise lesions, reconstruct ears, and fix congenital deformities. In the general surgery room, many of the procedures are similar as on adults: bowel resections for necrotizing enterocolitis, resection of choledochal cysts, thyroidectomies, and lymph node biopsies. Since my experience in pediatrics is limited, and much of it comprised well child visits, a lot of these surgeries and diseases are new to me. I have a lot to learn these two months.