EC Paediatrics

Pediatric surgeons have always been driven by a single aim: to deliver safe, precise, and compassionate care to the smallest and most vulnerable patients. Over the past decades, our discipline has undergone remarkable transformations. The introduction of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) was one such turning point. Georg Kelling’s first experimental laparoscopy in 1901 and Hans Christian Jacobaeus’ human application in 1910 opened the door to what, much later, would become standard in pediatrics. The milestone for children came in 1971, when Stephen Gans reported the first diagnostic laparoscopy in a pediatric patient. Since then, laparoscopy has dramatically changed outcomes, reducing pain, shortening hospital stays, and improving cosmesis.

1. Gans SL. “Experience with diagnostic peritoneoscopy in children”. Journal of Pediatric Surgery (1971).
2. Denning NL., et al. “Pediatric robotic surgery”. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery (2020).
3. Richards HW., et al. “Trends in robotic surgery utilization across tertiary children’s hospitals in the United States”. Surgical Endoscopy 11 (2020): 6066-6072.
4. Cave J and Clarke S. “Robotics in pediatric surgery: current perspectives”. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2018).
5. Kawal T., et al. “Robotic surgery in infants and children: an argument for smaller and fewer incisions”. World Journal of Urology 8 (2019): 1835-1840.