General Surgery
General surgeons assess and treat children with intra-abdominal disease (such as hepatoblastoma, Wilms tumor, neuroblastoma and lymphoma) and some thoracic tumors.
For an outline of the surgical management of some of these tumors please look at the surgical guidelines for management of:
Over the past decade minimally invasive surgery has become possible using laparoscopic techniques.
This is not always appropriate. If you have read through the surgical guidelines for Wilms tumor, it is obvious that the detailed staging and resection of a very large tumor cannot be achieved using laparoscopy.
However biopsy and excision of small masses is possible.
Laparoscopic surgery can be performed under general sedation and carbon dioxide insufflation is used so that the peritoneal cavity can be visualized.
