No adequate treatment - Children are often not operated on by pediatric surgeons

Optimal care of children at surgery endangers
Surgical procedures on children often present special challenges that actually require specialist training. However, "a majority of minority surgery in Germany is not performed by pediatric but adult surgeons," according to the latest release from the University Hospital Frankfurt. The optimal care of the children during surgery therefore seems insufficiently ensured.

Although the professional societies warn against carrying out operations on minors without special pediatric surgical training, many interventions in children are performed by adult surgeons. According to the Frankfurt University Hospital, children have to be "operated differently than adults" because their illnesses differ from those of adults, they react differently to treatments and anatomical peculiarities have to be considered. In Germany today, a very high proportion of children are not adequately treated during surgery.

Many children are operated on by surgeons without special education as a pediatric surgeon. The adequate care of minors seems to be insufficiently ensured. (Image: pingpao / fotolia.com)

Specific training is urgently needed
The surgical interventions of minors require "a separate surgical approach, for which a specific education is urgently needed," warns the University Hospital Frankfurt in its latest press release. To date, according to the Federal Statistics Office, "around one quarter of infants, one third of infants (one to five years), more than half of schoolchildren (five to ten years) and more than two thirds of adolescents (ten to fifteen) Years) of surgeons not specially trained for these age groups, ie not operated on by pediatric surgeons. "Thus, the optimal care of those affected is not adequately guaranteed.

Certificate for the education of pediatric surgeons
The Frankfurt University Hospital is extensively involved in the education of pediatric surgeons in view of the lack of qualified pediatric surgeons and has received the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) certificate last year. According to the University Hospital, the certificate, which qualifies children's surgeons throughout Europe, must meet very strict criteria, such as a prescribed minimum number of index operations and assistant doctors, the required equipment of the specialist laboratories and the scientific library, fixed training paths for medical assistants and much more , The University Hospital Frankfurt is currently the only continuing education center in Germany, which has been awarded the UEMS certificate.

More than 1,000 operations per year
The spectrum of treatment offered by the Frankfurt University Medical Pediatric Surgery encompasses numerous specialist disciplines. These are, according to the University Hospital, "about the surgical treatment of congenital malformations, neonatal surgery, childhood visceral surgery, oncological surgery of childhood and pediatric urology to the surgery of vascular deformities and pediatric hemangiomas - so-called sponges on the skin." More Thousands of such operations are carried out in Frankfurt every year. At the clinic, "by far the most congenital malformations in the Hesse region and almost all pediatric tumors," according to the University Hospital. Another focus is the therapy of children with special pediatric urological diseases, such as the congenital urinary transport disorder. (Fp)