Children’s Surgery

The history of medicine and surgery is well documented, but this volume offers the first specific exploration of the treatment of and attitudes towards children with injuries and birth defects through the ages. Popular thought holds that children in ancient times with birth defects faced a short life of abandonment or neglect. Examination of written records from ancient Egypt, India, Greece, and Islam, however, shows that physicians and surgeons have attempted to find remedies to cure ailing youths from the beginning of recorded medical history. These essays document the origins of children’s surgery, chronicle the history of children’s surgery into modern times, and explore the treatment of the most common visceral birth defects. With contributing authors offering perspectives from a variety of cultures, this extraordinary collection will interest not only medical professionals, but also historians and others in the child care field.

John G. Raffensperger, M.D., a retired pediatric surgeon, is the author of numerous books on pediatric surgery.

By John G. Raffensperger, M.D., with Contributing Specialists
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 347
Bibliographic Info: 42 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6825-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9048-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v
Introduction      1

PART I: IN THE BEGINNING
1: Aboriginal Surgery      5
2: Egyptian Papyri and Ritual Surgery      11
3: Biblical and Talmudic Accounts of Pediatric Conditions, Malformations and Diseases (Juda Jona, M.D.)      15
4: Pediatric Surgery in Ancient India (V. Raveenthiran, M.D.)      20
5: Traditional Chinese Medicine ( Jin- zhe Zhang, M.D.)      25
6: The Ancient Greeks and Hippocrates      29
7: The Alexandrians and Galen      37
8: From Galen to the Crusades      45
9: Byzantium to Baghdad      48
10: Salerno and the Universities      56
11: The Anatomists      64
12: Ambroise Paré (Praveen Goyal, M.D., and Andrew Williams, M.D.)      68
13: Some New Birth Defects      72
14: Return to Padua      79
15: The Eighteenth Century      84
16: The Nineteenth Century      93
17: Pediatric Surgery in the Age of Lister      103
18: Prelude to the Twentieth Century      110
19: Children’s Surgery Comes of Age      113

PART II: SPECIFIC CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS
20: Robert E. Gross (1905–1988) and Patent Ductus Arteriosus (W. Hardy Hendren, M.D.)      130
21: Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis      140
22: Ano- Rectal Anomalies (Edward Doolin, M.D.)      148
23: Clubfoot Through the Ages (Norris Carroll, M.D.)      160
24: Appendicitis (Stephen Dolgin, M.D.)      167
25: Necrotizing Enterocolitis      172
26: Esophageal Atresia and Tracheo- Esophageal Fistula      176
27: Wilms’ Tumor      192
28: History of Intussusception (Sigmund H. Ein, M.D., and Arlene Ein, R.N.)      200
29: A Historical Review of Hirschsprung’s Disease (Sigmund H. Ein, M.D., and Arlene Ein, R.N.)      206
30: Abdominal Wall Defects (Richard Ricketts, M.D.)      217
31: Diaphragmatic Hernia      234
32: Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida( John Ruge, M.D.)      244
33: Abdominal Trauma      253
34: Inguinal Hernia (Catherine M. Cosentino, M.D.)      259
35: Atresias of the Jejunum, Ileum and Colon (Randall Powell, M.D.)      264
36: Malrotation (Randall Powell, M.D.)      272
37: Coarctation of the Thoracic Aorta (Jack H. T. Chang, M.D., and John Burrington, M.D.)      278

Chapter Notes      285
Bibliography      311
About the Contributors      335
Index      337

“a book of this kind is long awaited…highly laudable. All the 18 contributors of the book have done a commendable job by recording the history of pediatric surgery with authenticity. This book deserves to find a place in every library and is a ‘must read’ for every surgeon especially those who are interested in children’s surgery”—Indian Journal of Pediatric Surgery; “it succeeds well by introducing any one without a large experience in the specific history of pediatric surgery…delightful”—Doody; “explains that pediatric surgery was not a specialty on its own until the middle of the 20th century, but as far back as ancient Egypt, India, and Cina and down the ages some individual healers specialized in children”—Reference & Research Book News.