inCapitalHealth » Paediatrics

Children and babies need a specialist paediatric surgeon

ICH Team — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:45:46 +0000

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.

Keyhole surgery on babies requires greatest expertise

ICH Team — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:52:25 +0000

Heading the section on paediatric surgery for in Capital Health, Niall Jones who is a Paediatric Gastrointestinal Specialist at The Royal London Hospital and the Portland Hospital for Women and Children explains his own philosophy for performing important operations on children.

“Keyhole techniques have transformed many areas of surgery in recent years. While conventional keyhole instruments can be used with adults and most children, for very young infants under the age of 6 months or weighing less than 5kg, they are simply too big. The use of smaller diameter, finder, laparoscopic equipment has a number of advantages over open surgery, for example, we can avoid invasive access into the abdomen, which can be quite traumatic for a newborn. As the incisions are so small, babies recover quicker, can begin feeding normally quicker and can go home with their parents sooner; they will also have less noticeable scars as they get older.”

The BBC have followed up and in the subsequent article, Niall Jones said; “Keyhole techniques have transformed many areas of surgery in recent years”. The BBC video demonstrating his technique can be seen here.

Niall Jones, paediatric consultant, in the London Evening Standard

ICH Team — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:05:57 +0000

Doctors at the Royal London are using specially-designed tools such as forceps and clamps which are only three millimetres wide reports London’s Evening Standard. Niall Jones, paediatric consultant at the Royal London, said: “The use of small equipment has a number of advantages over open surgery. For example, we can avoid invasive access into the abdomen, which can be quite traumatic for a newborn.”

Read the whole story

Is surgery to set back prominent ears (pinnaplasty) safe?

ICH Team — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:40:41 +0000

Surgery to set back prominent ears (pinnaplasty) is the most common paediatric plastic surgical procedure in the UK. Consultant Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon David Gault asks whether this surgery is necessary or even safe?

He says:

Setting the ears remains plastic surgery’s appendicectomy, but is it really safe, and why are we not avoiding it altogether when non-surgical correction has been around for over 20 years? Pinnaplasty is perceived as a simple procedure by doctors and the public alike……….. but a detailed review shows a steady incidence of problems.

and

Neonatal moulding can correct over 97% of all external ear deformities, including all folding deformities of the ear (stick-out ears, rim kinks, lop ear, Stahl’s bar) and cryptotiaback.

Read the full article: An End To Pinnaplasty