Forty years of European paediatric surgery

Summary

An attempt is made to outline the development of paediatric surgery in Europe since the last war. The pioneering work of a few surgeons before the war led to the systematic introduction of paediatric surgery during the post-war period. In spite of considerable opposition, this branch of surgery progressed rapidly and by the 1960s paediatric surgery was recognised as a specialty in most of the countries in Western Europe. The mechanism of this astonishingly quick progress is analysed. During the 1970s and even more in the 1980s the success story of paediatric surgery became marred by several negative developments, including the increasing tendency of organ specialists to take over certain areas of surgery in childhood. These developments are reviewed with reference to the views expressed to the author by 19 paediatric surgeons from 14 West European countries. Some ways of overcoming these difficulties are proposed.