Surgery

ColumbiaDoctors pediatric surgeons have set the standard for excellence in patient care for the last half century. Our skilled and dedicated specialists combine deep surgical experience with compassionate, family-centered care to improve the quality of life of countless newborns, children, and adolescents.

Our Expertise

We incorporate the most innovative techniques and technologies for routine procedures and complex surgeries. Our Extracorporeal Life Support (ECMO) program is one of the first of its kind and has treated thousands of infants and children with life-threatening cardiorespiratory failure.

Our outstanding surgeons are locally, nationally, and internationally known for a wide range of expertise:

• Cancer surgery in children
• ECMO for infants and children
• Minimal access surgery of the chest and abdomen
• Pediatric trauma care
• Treatment of congenital birth defects, including special expertise

Our Approach

We believe children recover from surgery best when families are together. In most cases, parents can accompany their child into the operating room and stay until he or she is asleep. (For safety reasons, they cannot stay during the actual surgery.) After the operation, parents go to the recovery room to be there when the child awakens from anesthesia.

Our family-centered approach also includes:

• Parental visiting 24 hours a day
• Parental rooming-in with the child
• Parent support groups
• Pediatric Pain Service
• Child Life Center, which provides schooling and age-appropriate play and recreational activities
• Big Apple Circus Clown Program
• Clinical Nurse Coordinator who provides counseling and healthcare services to patients and their families

Columbia’s pediatric surgeons at New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital launched the first video-assisted surgical program in the tristate area dedicated exclusively to children. The program uses minimal access techniques for surgeries such as laparoscopy (in the abdomen) and thoracoscopy (in the chest).

Many operations that once required hospitalization are now safely done on an outpatient basis. Depending on the child, these procedures may include hernia or hydrocele surgery and removal of cysts. Children return to the comfort of their home after the immediate recovery period, and families have the least disruption possible to their daily routine.

It's sometimes helpful for parents and children to visit the operating area before the day of surgery. We generally arrange this visit at the time of your initial consultation.