Current status of subspecialization in pediatric surgery: A focus on fetal surgery
Topic overview
Survey of 405 pediatric surgeons reveals wide variation in fetal surgery center structure and scope. While 96% include pediatric surgeons on fetal teams, only 29% performed fetal operations in the past year, with most centers focusing on prenatal consultation and care coordination rather than operative intervention.
Key takeaways
- Most fetal centers (96%) include pediatric surgeons, but only 29% of these surgeons actually performed a fetal operation in the past year.
- Fetal centers primarily provide prenatal consultation (99%) and imaging (84%), with only half (52%) offering actual fetal surgical procedures.
- Prenatal consultations are typically handled by any available pediatric surgeon (53%), not necessarily a fetal surgery specialist.
- The most common fetal interventions are complex twin procedures and needle-based sclerotherapy, with wide variation in annual case volumes.
- Majority of fetal programs (56%) use a co-directorship model between pediatric surgery and maternal-fetal medicine.
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