TRAUMA SURGERY
Pediatric surgery is the surgical branch that uses operative techniques to correct certain pediatric conditions (i.e. , congenital abnormalities, tumors, chronic diseases, and traumatic injuries).
There are different specialties within the field that include : –
- Pediatric general surgery
- Pediatric otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat)
- Pediatric ophthalmology (eye)
- Pediatric urology (urogenital system)
- Pediatric orthopedic (bone) surgery
- Pediatric neurological (brain and spinal cord) surgery
- Pediatric plastic (reconstructive and cosmetic) surgery
The Pediatric Surgery service is consulted immediately for any pediatric trauma victim with serious and/or multiple injuries, including burns.The service will coordinate the trauma work-up, consult the appropriate subspecialty services, perform any necessary general surgical procedures, and coordinate care in the hospital. The service maintains aconstant presence and therefore, an easily recognizable source of information for families and caretakers
What Makes Children Different?
Children aren’t small adults, anatomically or physiologically. Here’s a head-to-toe look at how pediatric anatomy and physiology affects injury patterns.
Head injuries cause most trauma deaths in children as well as adults. Children are especially vulnerable to head injuries because their heads are large and heavy relative to their bodies, and because their balance, coordination, gait, and judgment are immature.
Definition
Trauma is the branch of surgical medicine that deals with treating injuries caused by an impact. Many trauma patients are the victims of car crashes, stabbings and gun shot wounds. Trauma can also be caused by falls, crush type injuries and pedestrians being struck by a car.
Trauma
Surgeons practice the last to be created subspecialty of general surgery. Comfortable at operating on most body parts and cavities, trauma surgeons carry on the tradition of military surgeons as depicted in the novel M*A*S*H. Trauma surgeons have a high success rate regarding the sickest of patients who have sustained life and limb-threatening injuries. Trauma surgeons have become specialists in Surgical Critical Care, burns, and Emergency Surgery, and have, in the process, created the new specialty of Acute Care Surgery.
Trauma surgery in India
It has been suggested that Traumatology be merged into this article or section.In many hospitals throughout the India, trauma surgeons primarily stabilize patients and then transfer the patient to the appropriate department. For instance, a patient presenting to the emergency room with peripheral nervous system trauma would preferably be treated by a neurosurgeon.
Likewise, patients with musculoskeletal problems would be treated by an orthopedic surgeon, oral/maxillofacial trauma by a maxillofacial surgeon, and heart trauma by a cardiovascular surgeon. As trauma surgery has increasingly become inoperative in nature, its popularity among medical students has fallen drastically. Trauma surgeons make life and death choices everyday.
In the case of severe trauma, such as a catastrophic car crash, the trauma surgeon may be one part of a surgical team that includes vascular surgeons (to repair damage to blood vessels), orthopedic surgeons (to repair broken bones) and other surgeons as needed.
Attendings in Trauma Surgery are available in the India Hospiatal 24 hours a day for consultation and referral regarding patients with severe single or multiple system injuries. These fellowship-trained surgeons direct Shock Trauma’s team of fellows, residents, medical students, and nurses.
Trauma attendings also perform emergent and scheduled surgical procedures and oversee clinical management on the recovery units. For patients discharged from the trauma center, surgeons provide follow-up care through the We Care Health Solution
