Neonatal Surgery is a specialised branch of paediatric surgery where the paediatric surgeon operates on newborn babies, often weighing only 1.5 kg to 3 kg. The structures are tiny, tissues need very delicate handling, and many congenital anomalies have to be operated within twenty-four hours of birth.
Neonatal surgery evolved alongside paediatric surgery. Initially morbidity and mortality were very high, but with modern warmers, better neonatal anaesthesia techniques and neonatal ventilators, success and survival rates are now high.
In our department more than a thousand newborn surgeries are performed every year, supported by well-trained nurses who handle post-operative newborn care.
Common surgical problems in newborns include anorectal malformation (ARM), oesophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula (EA & TEF), Hirschsprung’s disease, bowel atresia, intestinal malrotation, congenital lobar emphysema (CLE), congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), exomphalos major and minor, and gastroschisis.
Common congenital neonatal surgical conditions:
- Oesophageal atresia
- Diaphragmatic hernia
- Neonatal intestinal obstruction from different causes
- Volvulus neonatorum
- Anorectal malformations
- Abdominal wall defects — omphalocele, gastroschisis, bladder exstrophy
- Patent vitello-intestinal duct (VID) / urachus
- Spina bifida with meningocele / myelomeningocele
- Sacrococcygeal teratoma
Common acquired neonatal surgical conditions:
- Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC)
- Neonatal torsion testis
- Breast abscess
- Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS)
- Abscess / cellulitis
- Umbilical granuloma / polyp
- Ovarian cyst