A pediatric neurosurgeon has the experience and qualifications to treat a child with neurosurgical problems.
Pediatric neurosurgeons treat children from the newborn period through the teenager years. They choose to make pediatric care the core of their medical practice, and the unique nature of medical and surgical care of children is learned from advanced training and experience in practice.
Pediatric Hydrocephalus is the most common disease treated by pediatric neurosurgeons and accounts for roughly US$2 billion in health expenditures in the USA every year
Pediatric neurosurgeons diagnose, treat, and manage children’s nervous system problems and head and spinal deformities including the following:
Head deformities
Spine deformities
Problems and injuries of the brain, spine, or nerves
Gait abnormalities (spasticity) Birth injuries (weakness of arms and legs)
The pediatric neurosurgeon will provide the diagnostic and surgical interventions in a hospital that has the support services, pediatric physicians, and nurses necessary for the care of your child. Children with special needs require that the pediatric neurosurgeon work closely with the primary care pediatrician and the pediatric specialist to provide coordinated and comprehensive care of the child.
In 1972 eleven neurosurgeons assembled in Chicago a year after attending a meeting in Paris where it was decided that a society of pediatric neurosurgeons working throughout the world should exist. In Chicago, the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) was founded and its first meeting to be held in Tokyo one year later was scheduled.
The International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) was founded in 1972.
To provide an analysis of pediatric neurosurgery educational opportunities in Latin America in order to characterize and evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations to assume a career in pediatric neurosurgery.
Methods: An online survey was distributed to pediatric neurosurgeons in Latin America to assess aspects of pediatric neurosurgical education, working conditions, and training opportunities. The survey was open to neurosurgeons that treat pediatric patients, whether or not they had completed fellowship training in pediatrics. A descriptive analysis was done with a subgroup analysis stratified the results among certified pediatric neurosurgeons and non-certified pediatric neurosurgeons.
Results: In total, 106 pediatric neurosurgeons completed the survey, of whose the vast majority completed their training in a Latin American pediatric neurosurgery program. A total of 19 accredited academic programs in pediatric neurosurgery were found in Latin America distributed in 6 different countries. On average, the pediatric neurosurgical training in America Latina has a duration of 278 years, ranging from 1 to > 6 years.
Conclusions: This study is the first of its kind to review pediatric neurosurgical training in Latin America, in which both pediatric and general neurosurgeons provide neurosurgical care to children in the continent; however, we found that in the majority of the cases, children are treated by certified pediatric neurosurgeons, of whose the vast majority were trained in Latin American programs. On the other hand, we found areas of improvement in the specialty in the continent, including regulation of training opportunities, increased support for funding, and more opportunities for education among all countries 1).