Taking a Service Forward: The Adolescent and Adult Care of Major Congenital Anomalies—The Move from Adolescent to Lifelong Care

Abstract

The transition of children, born with congenital anomalies, into adulthood has always been and is still today a challenging problem for the patient, the family and also the different systems of medical care. This is a problem that for many years has been neglected. Over the last decade there has, however, been more focus on “adolescent care.” The survival of children with severe anomalies has improved significantly and this has further emphasized the need for continuous care and follow-up of these patients. Children born with major anomalies deserve and require life-long evaluation, follow-up care and treatment. For many years, in urology, Christopher Woodhouse shone the light on the different problems that patients may encounter in adult life (“An Adolescent Urologist is a Pediatric Urologist who knows everything but 20 years too late”). He and others have shown that it is possible to significantly improve the health and well-being using a planned follow-up system and has also shown the benefits of reconstructive surgery in post-pubertal life.