The Pediatric Surgery Course aims to provide the student with some fundamental knowledge on the most common surgical pathologies that affect children, in all phases of life from before birth up to adolescence and beyond, with particular attention paid to those pathologies that can request speech therapy assistance.
Course Prerequisites
Understanding the topics covered in the teaching of Pediatric Surgery requires the student to have basic knowledge of general and surgical pathology, as well as anatomy and physiology. A basic understanding of pediatrics is also helpful in focusing attention on children's health needs
Teaching Methods
For all these pathologies, emphasis will be placed on the diagnostic process, on how to suspect and confirm a specific diagnosis, rather than on the surgical technique to be adopted in treatment. The lessons will therefore be structured on symptoms and signs presented by the suffering child, rather than on a classic taxonomic process: we will talk about the child who presents with acute abdominal pain, or with a misleading abdominal or groin mass, or with gastrointestinal haemorrhage, and so on.
Assessment Methods
In-person oral exam, possibly integrated with MCQs.
G.B.Parigi - Chirurgia pediatrica. Approccio e gestione del bambino con problemi chirurgici. Elsevier ed.
Contents
As regards the newborn, the main topic will be that relating to congenital malformations, such as esophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, congenital intestinal obstruction, omphalocele and gastroschisis, biliary atresia and hypospadias . As regards the child, the interest will focus on some peculiar pathologies acquired in the first year of life, such as hypertrophic stenosis of the infantile pylorus and intussusception. Particular attention will be paid to pathologies of the gastroesophageal tract which may fall within the scope of interest of the speech therapist.
