History of pediatric anesthesia and pediatric cardiac-congenital surgery

Abstract

Pediatric surgery has a long history that dates back to the early twentieth century. In the early 1900s, pediatric medicine and surgery were undistinguishable from general adult surgical care, therefore, adult and pediatric patients were treated in a similar manner. Pediatric cardiac and congenital surgery focuses upon the surgical correction of major anomalies pertaining to the heart and surrounding vascular structures. As the subspecialty of pediatric surgery evolved in the mid-1900s, pediatric surgical care became more commonly based at children’s specialty hospitals throughout Europe and the United States. In the pre-1850s, U.S hospitals generally had no place for children outside of the maternity ward. In 1850, the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) in Philadelphia opened its doors. By 1871, CHOP was performing its first pediatric surgeries, and in 1871 the first pediatric-centered medical training program was established. Pediatric surgical pioneers began to emerge as early as 1917, and a small cadre of surgeons developed the field that eventually became the norm around the United States. The birth of modern pediatric anesthesia first began in the 1930s and was closely tied to the advances being made by the respective pediatric surgeons. In the 1960s and 1970s, pediatric anesthesia entered into its first explosive period of growth fueled by translational discoveries in human biology, including fundamental understandings of the transition from fetal to postnatal circulation. The field of congenital surgery and anesthesiology was the amalgamation of multiple separate sectors coalescing into one hybridized field encompassing pediatrics, anesthesiology, cardiology, surgery, and interventional radiology.