Preparing for Surgery
Provided in our site are educational guides for a number of the common conditions treated by the staff at Pediatric Surgical Associates. These guides are provided for informational purposes only. For any specific information on conditions or treatment you should speak to your primary care physician.
Planning For Surgery
Your son/daughter will soon be coming to the hospital for a bowel prep the day before their scheduled surgery. In order to make the hospital bowel prep go more smoothly, we are asking that you follow the enclosed guidelines for a “home bowel prep” the day before coming to the hospital.
Pre-op Instructions
Bladder augmentation is a surgical procedure to enlarge the bladder so that it can hold greater volumes of urine.
Your son will soon be coming to the hospital for a chordee repair. This will involve a very small incision made in the penis to correct the curvature. This information will help prepare you and your child for the procedure.
A circumcision is a procedure to surgically remove the foreskin from the penis. This is most often done shortly after birth, but sometimes a circumcision is done later in a child’s life, even in adulthood.
Your child is scheduled for a continent urinary ostomy. Your doctor will use the appendix or a small piece of bowel to make a new passage for urine to come out. The appendix is a tube about the size and length of a finger that is attached to part of the bowel. Since the appendix is not needed there, the doctor removes it, and opens both ends so it looks like a straw. One end will be “funneled” into the bladder and the other to a small opening on the abdomen or in the belly button. This is called a stoma. To empty the bladder, a catheter is passed through the stoma and into the bladder. The urine will drain out of the catheter.
Your child will soon be coming to the hospital for a cystoscopy and/or a urethral dilation. This procedure uses a cystoscope to look into the inside of the bladder and the urethra (the tube that leads from the bladder to the outside). Your child may also be scheduled for a dilation. This procedure increases the size of the urethra in the area that is to small or narrow.
The testicles begin to develop in the abdomen. In most boys, they move down into the scrotum before birth. As this happens, some of the lining of the abdomen (called the peritoneum) comes down a a tube with the testicle. In most boys, the tube that forms the connection between the peritoneum and the scrotum is closed at birth; but in some boys it remains open, forming a pocket. If the fluid produced in the abdomen goes into the pocket, then it is called a hydrocele. About 1 in 3 newborn boys will have a small hydrocele, most of them close on their own. If the bowel goes into the pocket, it is called a hernia. Both the hernia/hydrocele cause swelling in the scrotum or lower groin. In girls, swelling due to the hernia occurs in the pubic area or lower abdomen.
Hypospadias is a birth defect of the penis. The urethral opening, the hole where the urine comes out, is not in the normal position. Instead of the tip it is on the undersurface of the penis.
Your child will soon be coming to the hospital for a nephrectomy. This procedure will remove all or part of a kidney that is not functioning well. This information will help prepare you and your child for the procedure.
Orchiopexy is a surgical procedure to move testicles from the abdomen or groin into the scrotum. Before birth, the testicle moves from the pelvic area down into the scrotum. In some boys, this does not occur and it is called undescended testicles. This may require more than one operation depending on the position of the testes and any other associated problems.
Your child will soon be coming to the hospital for a pyeloplasty. A pyeloplasty is an operation performed to clear away an obstruction at the point where the ureter meets the kidney.
Your child needs an operation to prevent urine from backing up from the bladder to the kidney and damaging the kidney tissue. The operation is called a ureteral reimplant.
To view the forms listed, you will need Adobe Reader. Please bring your completed forms with you to our office at the time of your visit.
