History

The Department of Pediatric Surgery at KGMU started in 1970 intending to deliver pediatric surgical super-specialty services in North India. The department was elevated to a separate Pediatric Surgery Unit in the Department of General Surgery in 1978 and later to a separate department in 1998.

 

Activities

The department provides state-of-the-art neonatal and pediatric surgical facilities to the children of northern India. Referrals from adjoining states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and adjoining countries - Nepal and Bhutan are also admitted here to avail of super-specialty pediatric surgical services. 

 The department has a 24x7 facility for emergency admissions and surgery. Special areas of interest are congenital short colon, esophageal atresia, tracheoesophageal fistula, anorectal malformations, pediatric urology, and minimally invasive surgery. Gastrointestinal endoscopy, bronchoscopy, urological endoscopy, and therapeutic procedures are also performed. 

The department is also involved in various research activities thereby igniting the light of knowledge among young medical professionals. Research areas include gastric tube esophageal replacement for long gap tracheoesophageal fistula, congenital malformations, spina bifida, surgical nutrition, portal hypertension, Hirschsprung's disease, and pediatricuro surgery. More than 500 papers, posters, guest lectures, and orations in state level, national and international conferences have been presented by the faculty and students.

The department has organized the Annual Conference of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 1995 and 2009, International Workshop on Anorectal Malformations in 2003, International Workshop on Exstrophy and epispadias repair in 2006, Annual Conference of UP-UK chapter- Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 2013 and various CME’s every year. The department is regularly involved in various programs in interaction with other departments and institutions to upgrade the knowledge among staff and students

The department is conducting a National Medical Commission (erstwhile Medical Council of India) approved MCh course in Pediatric Surgery since 2003 with an annual intake of two candidates per year at present. 

 

FACILITIES

The department has a bed strength of 71, including 10 neonatal intensive care systems, 13 post-operative beds and 11 Pediatric surgery emergency beds, and 36 general beds. Patients are also admitted to various Private room (AC and Non-AC) rooms. The department is equipped with incubators, nebulizer, neonatal ventilator, and all gastrointestinal, urological, and airway endoscopes.

LAPAROSCOPY and Minimal Access surgery

Department is doing basic and advanced laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery on children and neonates. Laparoscopic hernia repair, surgery for non-palpable undescended testis, appendicectomy, gall bladder surgery, high anorectal malformations, and advanced urological procedures are now possible with laparoscopy. 

OUTPUT

The bed occupancy rate is 100%. The annual OPD attendance is about 8000, while inpatient admissions number about 1200 annually. About 1100 operations are performed every year, of which about 900 are major procedures and 150 are minor.

 

Future Vision

The faculty, students, and staff involved in Pediatric surgery are working hard to work on the VISION -2047 to improve the facilities and provide world-class Pediatric surgical services to the patients. In this perspective, the university is working to increase the number of MCh seats from two at present to ten per year, start PDF (Post-doctoral fellowship) courses in Pediatric Surgery sub-specialties like PediatricGastrosurgery, PediatricUro Surgery, Pediatric Minimal access surgery, Fetal Surgery, and Pediatric Robotic Surgery. To upgrade the nursing services MSc (Pediatric Surgery Nursing) under the direction of the College of Nursing, a Certificate course in Pediatric Surgery counseling, a Certificate course in Antenatal counseling for congenital anomalies, Certificate course in Pediatric Surgical nutrition is also planned.

For upgrading the Clinical & Research activities Skill labs for the training of staff, students, and faculties increasing the bed strength, collaboration with various national and international universities for technical upliftment, student exchange program and research activities, Urodynamic and advanced urology center with equipped USG and X-ray machine for bedside procedures, specialized Pediatric surgery faculty in various developed sub specialties of pediatric surgery is also planned.