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January 2012 Newsletter

Pediatric Surgery Research

How do we reduce the post-operative pain and recovery time of a child who undergoes an appendectomy or a splenectomy? What is the role of intestinal bacteria in determining the course of and the need for surgical intervention in inflammatory bowel disease? How vigorously should we transfuse children who have undergone surgery for congenital heart disease? What predicts progression of scoliosis in children and how can we identify those who will require surgery?

Pediatric general surgeons, orthopedists, otolaryngologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, ophthalmologists, neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and urologists are critically needed and very hard to find! In addition, only through research and training will we make all surgical procedures safer, more effective, and less painful for children. Pediatric surgical research at Golisano Children’s Hospital is multidepartmental and multifaceted. For example, Jill Cholette, M.D., is a Pediatric Critical Care Medicine physician who works with George Alfieris, M.D., a Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon to optimize blood product management and hematocrit in congenital heart disease patients. James O. Sanders, M.D. , a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon, works with orthopedists from around the U.S. to determine the best ways to diagnose and treat adolescents with scoliosis. Kate G. Ackerman, M.D., a Pediatric Critical Care Medicine physician works in the laboratory to identify the genes and proteins responsible for diaphragmatic hernias, while Walter Pegoli, M.D., and his colleagues in Pediatric Surgery and William Maniscalco, M.D., and his colleagues in Neonatology work to optimize the treatment of children born today with this abnormality.  There are very few pediatric surgeons in the entire United States.  You can help to keep ours in Rochester, make the surgery of tomorrow better than anything we dream of today, and train the next generation’s pediatric surgeons and surgical subspecialists by endowing a professorship, a research program, or a training program.