ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT
The department of Pediatric Surgery has been functioning since its inception in the year 1979, providing specialised surgical services for newborns, infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The department is an important tertiary care centre in the state of Gujarat having an OPD turnover of more than 8000 patients and 1200 admissions per year; and performing 2100-2200 surgeries annually including 20% neonatal surgeries.
The department which started with only few beds in the General Surgery Department has been developed into a full-fledged neonatal and paediatric surgical department with a well-functioning NSICU and PSICU functioning at the 1200 bedded Mother, Child and Superspecialty hospital. It has a capacity of 20 beds in NSICU, 20 beds in PSICU and 60 beds in the Pediatric surgical ward. It is well-equipped with all modern gadgets and necessary endoscopic instruments for all minimal invasive surgeries like advanced laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, cystoscopy and bronchoscopy.
Work Schedule
OPD: First floor, O Block
1200 bed hospital
Tuesdays and Fridays
Operation days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Activities & Services
The Department provides emergency neonatal and pediatric surgical services 24x7. All speciality surgeries related to Neonatal Surgery, Pediatric Tumors, Pediatric Thoracic Surgery, Pediatric Reconstructive urology, Pediatric Neurosurgery and Pediatric Minimally Invasive Surgery including Bronchoscopy are being performed.
The department is also running a M.Ch course in Pediatric Surgery affiliated to Gujarat University with 3 admissions per year.
The overwhelming workload in the department would lead to concerns about quality of care. Nevertheless, the overall results reveal the degree of commitment, with the survival rate for
tracheo-esophageal anomalies being around 60%. Also of note are the quite good results of hypospadias repair, single stage procedures in Hirschsprung's disease and anorectal malformations in females.
Special Programs & Extraordinary work
The department of Paediatric Surgery is conducting an annual workshop on complex urogenital anomalies since 2009 in collaboration with internationally renowned specialists from CHOP and Cincinnati children’s hospital in the United States. The workshop focuses specifically on the exstrophy –epispadias complex. Till now more than 150 patients with complex urogenital anomalies have been treated by these workshops.
In January 2015, the first International live operative workshop on “Exstrophy Epispadias Complex” was organised by the department at Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. In this conference more than 100 delegates participated from all over the country; and this was an academically enriching experience for everyone involved.
Awards and honors
• In January 2015, at the International workshop on Exstrophy-epispadias, Dr. Rakesh Joshi, the Professor and Head, was awarded the 38th prestigious MAGPIE tie
• Certification as an advisory board member on the International panel of the ‘Association for Bladder Exstrophy Community’(ABEC)
• Recipient of the first “Richard Grady Humanitarian Award” for outstanding work in Bladder exstrophy in 2018
• Recipient of award for ‘Pediatric Surgery Awareness week’ activities three times at national conference (2016,2017, 2018)
• Recognition of outstanding work during Covid pandemic
• The Department of Pediatric Surgery was recognized as “A Centre Of Excellence for Bladder Exstrophy” in January 2020.
• Dr.Joshi was recognised a Fellow of the Society of Pediatric Urology in 2020
• Dr.Joshi and Dr. Jaishri have contributed to book chapter ‘Splenic Disorders’ in the IAPS Textbook of Pediatric Surgery
Message from HOD
Young children hurt easily, yet recover fast. Surgical anomalies in children cover a wide variety of congenital, inflammatory and malignant conditions. Surgical management, especially reconstructive procedures need to be precise and delicately performed. The outcomes can be gratifying, but also occasionally heartrending.
The Department of Pediatric Surgery was built up gradually and nurtured with lots of effort to the present position where we can boast of a dedicated and skilled team of faculty, residents and nursing staff. The number of patients consulting the department from various parts of Gujarat as well as other thirteen states and three neighbouring countries is a testament to the quality of work done here.
Our dedicated annual Bladder Exstrophy workshop, which has been running for 11 years and managing more than 150 patients of this complex anomaly, attracts observers and patients from all over the world. We have the unique distinction of being recognized as ‘A Centre of Excellence’ for Bladder Exstrophy.
Thus the department of Pediatric Surgery is evolving day by day and committed to premium surgical services and also develop a keen involvement in academic activities.
Dr.Rakesh Joshi
Professor and Head of Pediatric Surgery