World Federation of Associations of Pediatric Surgeons - Declaration for Pediatric Surgery
- Children are not just small adults and have medical and surgical problems and needs that are often quite different from those encountered by adult physicians. Infants and children deserve the very best medical care available. Every infant and child who suffers from an illness or disease has the right to be treated in an environment devoted to their care by a pediatric medical or surgical specialist.
- Pediatric Surgeons are specially trained physicians with extensive experience and the greatest expertise in treating infants and children of all ages (from the neonatal peroid trough adolescence) with surgical disorders. Because of their unique training pediatric surgical specialists provide a wide range of treatment options and the highest quality care to children.
- Pediatric Surgeons diagnose, treat, and manage children´s surgical needs including: surgical repair of birth defects, serious injures in children (including some that require surgery), childhood solid tumors, conditions requiring endoscopy and minimally invasive procedures, and all other surgical procedures in children including ambulatory surgery.
- In order to provide the best surgical care for infants and children, complex pediatric surgical procedures should be carried out in specialized pediatric centers with intensive care facilities appropriately equipped with modern technology. In addition to the trained pediatric surgeons, these facilities should be staffed with other multidisciplinary pediatric specialist including radiologists, anesthesiologists and pathologists. These specialized centers often provide eductional postgraduate training and should be staffed 24 hours per day seven days per week.
Prof. Jay L. Grosfeld, M.D.
President of the W.O.F.A.P.S
Minutes of the XXXIII Executive Committee Meeting of the World Federation of
Associations of Pediatric Surgeons, October 27th, 2000
