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Faculty members in the division of pediatric surgery are expert in the operative and non-operative management of childhood surgical illness. Physicians for the whole patient, all faculty members are board-certified in general surgery and pediatric surgery, with additional expertise in critical care, trauma, burns and minimally invasive surgery. These highly dedicated physicians care for their own patients and follow them from initial symptoms through diagnostic testing, therapeutic intervention, disease resolution and through long-term follow up as indicated. UF pediatric surgeons are experts in both simple and complex childhood surgical illness, including hernias, hydroceles, undescended testicles, various lumps and bumps, appendicitis, head and neck abnormalities including tumors, branchial cleft anomalies, thyroglossal duct cysts, and thyroid masses. Surgeons in the division are active in both clinical and academic work in childhood tumors including Wilms tumor, neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and lung tumors. They are the chest and lung surgeons for children, treating lung anomalies and tumors, esophageal disease, other thoracic tumors, and chest wall anomalies such as pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum. They care for all types of intestinal anomalies including Hirschsprung's disease, and are active in the surgical management of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, including total abdominal colectomy with restorative ileo-anal pull-thru for ulcerative colitis and polyposis syndromes. This division is nationally and internationally recognized for clinical work in congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and is a national referral center for this life threatening deformity. Survival rates at UF approach 90 percent while the national average is roughly 65 percent. Similarly, pediatric surgeons are active in a wide range of neonatal surgical illnesses, including esophageal atresia, tracheo-esophageal fistula, abdominal wall defects, Hirschsprung's disease and intestinal atresias, to name a few. Faculty are highly advanced in minimally invasive surgery, utilizing laparoscopy and thoracoscopy liberally in the surgical care of children and infants to improve outcomes, cosmesis and to decrease post-operative pain and hospitalization. Research Members of the division are active in clinical research in the areas of outcomes and quality indicators, congenital diaphragmatic hernia and neuro-protection, surgical management of teenage obesity and receive NIH research funding to study the basic biology of the childhood tumor neuroblastoma.
Treatment Services and Emergency Transport Patients are treated by division faculty members at Shands Children's Hospitals and UF Physicians pediatric clinics. These programs are linked to affiliated clinics in Daytona Beach, Ocala, and Tallahassee. An emergency referral center and air transport system, started in 1970, ensures the safe transfer of infants, children and adolescents throughout this system to the tertiary treatment facilities in Gainesville.
Clinical Specialties Pediatric anesthesiologists provide anesthesia support for the children. Expertise of divisional faculty members covers the entire spectrum of surgical problems in infants, children, adolescent and young adults (ages 0 - 21). - Laparoscopy and thoracoscopy, including high-end applications for newborn anomalies and tumors - Congenital diaphragmatic hernia and newborn anomalies such as lung lesions, esophageal atresia, tracheo-esophageal fistula, duodenal and intestinal atresias, neonatal tumors, omphalocele, gastroschisis, imperforate anus and Hirschsprung's disease - Thoracic surgery: lung, airway, mediastinum, esophagus and chest wall deformities - pectus excavatum/carinatum and tumors - Pediatric trauma and burns - Childhood tumors of the kidney and adrenals, chest and abdomen - Inguinal hernias, hydroceles and undescended testes - Congenital lesions of the head and neck, cysts and sinuses - Endocrine surgery - thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal - Congenital and acquired diseases and tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, including liver, biliary tract, pancreas and spleen - Surgical management of obesity in adolescents - Breast lesions and tumors - Airway lesions, foreign bodies and laser surgery - Endoscopic procedures - both upper and lower gastrointestinal - Pediatric gynecology - congenital anomalies and tumors
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