Department of Surgery
General and specialized surgical services for children
The Department of Pediatric Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital provides general and specialized surgical services to infants, children, and adolescents suffering from a wide range of congenital and acquired conditions including hernias, hydroceles, and undescended testes, as well as cysts and tumors of the head and neck.
Caring for an average of 8,600 outpatients annually and performing more than 4,000 operative procedures each year, Boston Children's is one of the largest pediatric surgery programs in the world. Our team listens to you and your child. We work collaboratively with you to design a plan of treatment appropriate to your child's condition and unique circumstances. We're constantly engaged in clinical research designed to come up with new strategies for diagnosis and treatment.
The Department of Pediatric Surgery strives to provide premier clinical care to children in both outpatient and inpatient settings. Care is designed to restore children with routine to highly complex illnesses occurring from conception to adulthood.
Meet Myles
When a prenatal ultrasound revealed a large mass, known as a CPAM, in Myles’ chest, his parents traveled to our Maternal Fetal Care Center.
Meet with our Surgery Department psychologist
Experts in pediatric surgery
Our pediatric surgeons and support team work in a learning environment of advocacy for the child. Together with Boston Children's highly trained pediatric anesthesiologists, these teams approach each and every procedure with the unique consideration due to pediatric patients.
We continually seek to educate patients, families, and peers, while committing to advance the knowledge of the future leaders of our field.
We support both the basic and clinical research of new strategies for diagnosis and treatment as well as the joy and fulfillment of discovery itself. We strive to be a team of faculty fulfilled by our development, thankful for our health and family, and rewarded by the opportunity to care for your child and your family.
Surgical firsts at Boston Children’s
Boston Children's Hospital has been at the forefront of child health for more than 130 years. Below are just a few of our surgical firsts:
First:
- successful surgical procedure to correct a congenital heart defect: ligation of a patent ductus arteriosis
- successful infant lung transplant in New England
- use of the combination of a peripartum EXIT procedure and ECMO to treat an infant with critical airway obstruction
- organized training program for trainees in pediatric surgery
- published textbook in pediatric surgery in the Western world: Ladd and Gross, Abdominal Surgery of Childhood
- definition of the research field of angiogenesis
- successful application of angiogenesis inhibitors to treat a childhood tumor
- description of tracheal occlusion to facilitate development of the "hypoplastic" lung
- to develop and use the serial transverse enteroplasty procedure (STEP) as treatment for short bowel syndrome
