Molecular and Digital Innovation in Pediatric Surgery

A generation ago, pediatric surgeons practiced their art during a “golden age.” They learned how to carry out highly complex operations such as separating conjoined twins, the intestinal pull-through, brain hemispherectomy, and organ transplantation. Moreover, they also introduced minimally invasive...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: G. T. Sharrer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: World Scientific Publishing 2024-12-01
Series:Molecular Frontiers Journal
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Online Access:https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S2529732524500032
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Summary:A generation ago, pediatric surgeons practiced their art during a “golden age.” They learned how to carry out highly complex operations such as separating conjoined twins, the intestinal pull-through, brain hemispherectomy, and organ transplantation. Moreover, they also introduced minimally invasive surgery with laparoscopic tools, began video-assisted thoracic surgery, and reduced premature births with cervical cerclage. Such procedures will never be commonplace, but they no longer make the evening news. What garners attention now is molecular surgery (gene therapy and genome editing), a score of “omics” for precision diagnostics, ex vivo tissue and organ culture, and artificial intelligence applied to everything, digitally controlled, between the doctor’s stethoscope and autonomous robots. The question, now, is whether pediatric surgery’s greatest golden age is past or yet to be.
ISSN:2529-7325
2529-7333