Surgery Services for Children

While you hope your child or teen never needs surgery, when they do, you want the highest quality and most appropriate care tailored to their specific situation from healthcare professionals with the special training to deliver exceptional surgical care for children.

Child-Focused Surgical Care Close to Home

At OU Health in Oklahoma City, you’ll find the highly trained and experienced children's surgery experts, who perform more than 1,800 pediatric surgeries each year, as well as comprehensive surgical services and advanced surgical technologies available only at Oklahoma’s academic health system.

Top-Quality Surgery for Children’s Health Conditions

If your child needs a surgical procedure, the pediatric surgery experts at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health stand ready to provide care for the full spectrum of routine and complex children’s health conditions such as:

• Abdominal wall defects
• Anorectal malformations
• Ambiguous genitalia
• Appendicitis
• Biliary atresia
• Birth defects
• Cancer
• Chest wall deformities
• Diaphragmatic hernia
• Duodenal atresia
• Esophageal atresia
• Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)
• Gastroschisis
• Hiatal hernia
• Hirschsprung disease
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Inguinal hernia
• Lung masses (CPAM, lung metastases)
• Malrotation and volvulus
• Necrotizing enterocolitis
• Neuroblastoma
• Omphalocele
• Pyloric stenosis
• Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Trauma
• Umbilical hernia
• Wilms’ tumor

Children's Surgical Services for Every Need

From surgical equipment designed for pediatric procedures and the region’s only fellowship-trained pediatric anesthesiologists to the private rooms where you can stay with your child and provide comfort, everything at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health works for your child. As you consider your child’s health needs, you can take advantage of a wide range of specialized pediatric surgical services such as:

• Cardiothoracic surgery (heart surgery for children)
• General surgery and outpatient surgery, including care forinflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children
• Neurosurgery
• Organ Transplant surgery
• Orthopedic surgery
• Pediatric cancer surgery
• Plastic and reconstructive surgery for children, including cleft and congenital conditional, complex craniofacial syndromes and more
• Trauma surgery at Oklahoma's only 24/7 nationally verified Level 1 trauma center for the highest level of care anywhere

You’re assured of accurate diagnosis and monitoring through pediatric-specific imaging and radiology services that help doctors evaluate your child’s condition and determine the next steps in their care. And if needed for a serious health issue, our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) provides round-the-clock care for the most critically ill children.

Multidisciplinary, Research-Based Children's Surgery

Committed to caring for children 24/7, your child's pediatric surgeons take a team-based approach to care that gives you access to experts from multiple health disciplines and specialties for a complete view of your child's particular condition. You gain access to extensive research and leading clinical trials that develop powerful medicines and innovative procedures to expand your child's options for health and healing.

Children's General & Outpatient Surgery

One of the many surgical specialties and subspecialties, pediatric general surgery at OU Health focuses on conditions affecting children’s digestive health, including the esophagus and stomach, as well as other organs and muscles in the abdomen. General surgeons also treat thyroid conditions, diseases of the skin, breast and soft tissues, and thoracic complaints and they perform trauma-related surgery.

When you work with OU Health’s dedicated pediatric general surgeons, you gain access to the specialized resources of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health in Oklahoma City. And your child benefits from the skilled healthcare professionals, research, innovation, technology and tools of our academic medical center that produce the best possible outcomes for your child’s particular situation.

Whether we’re your child’s first and only experience with a medical procedure or we become like family and see you and your child for extended hospital stays throughout their childhood, you can expect clear communication, compassion, confidence and trustworthy leadership to deal with any situation or level of care, no matter how complex.

Learn more about children’s digestive health.

Children's Outpatient (Same-Day) Surgery

Advances in medical technology and surgical techniques allow many health conditions to respond well to less invasive surgical procedures that no longer require a hospital stay.

At OU Health, outpatient (same-day) surgery lets you take advantage of the full range of services at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital while your child typically returns home later the same day to fully recover. You and your child’s OU Health doctors and surgical team will determine whether to use same-day surgery for your child’s procedure.

Upon discharge from a same-day surgical procedure, you’ll receive instructions about how to care for your child during postoperative recovery, any medications needed and the plans for follow-up appointments with the appropriate physicians.

Family-Centered Care

When you choose pediatric surgical services from Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health, you and your child benefit from family-centered care that makes you a valued member of your child’s multidisciplinary surgery team, involved in all aspects of care from your first introduction through the time you return home.

As a parent or designated caregiver, you’re included in your child’s care and encouraged to provide any portion of it you feel you can manage. While your child stays in the hospital, doctors make formal rounds each morning to meet with you and your child’s care team.

Your child’s nurses complete an assessment every four hours and more often if needed. If permitted by doctor’s orders, your child always has access to snacks or you may request meals delivered to the room.

You can depend on the surgeon and the pediatric surgery team to follow up with you directly, monitor your child’s progress and oversee all aspects of care, large or small, for as long as necessary.

Child Life Specialists

Helping to make your child’s surgery and hospital experience at OU Health as understandable and close to normal as possible, certified Child Life specialists at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital use developmentally appropriate language and interactive dolls to explain the process and demonstrate what to expect.

Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery

To treat your child’s congenital heart condition, with all its unique aspects, you want the best of everything. At the all-inclusive Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health in Oklahoma City, you’ll find Oklahoma’s first and only comprehensive children’s cardiothoracic surgery program designed specifically and only for cardiac kids. Through the extensive experience gained by treating hundreds of children each year and the focused attention on children’s heart care, you can look forward to results at OU Health that meet or exceed the achievements of some of the most successful programs in the nation.

With access to highly trained pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons and specialized operating rooms, anesthesia, cardiac ICU facilities and around-the-clock intensive care at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, you and your child benefit from a wide range of options to care for any heart condition, from relatively minor to highly complex.

Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

In addition to traditional open surgery, your child’s condition may respond to an alternative approach that eliminates the need for an incision through the breastbone. Using either laparoscopic or robotic-assisted techniques, your child’s skilled surgeon works with tiny precision tools through small incisions in the rib cage, which means your child typically experiences less pain and discomfort, as well as a quicker recovery.

Specialized Pediatric Heart Surgery Services

Pediatric cardiothoracic surgical procedures at OU Health include:

• Neonatal and infant cardiac surgery – Repairs congenital and other defects in the heart or large blood vessels connected to it
• Single ventricle surgery – Creates alternative method for blood circulation through the heart in a series of three surgeries between birth and age 3
• Congenital coronary anomaly – Repairs misplaced coronary arteries connected to the aorta
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – Provides breathing and heart function support during extended treatment for serious heart or lung conditions
• Mononuclear cell therapy for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) – Boosts right-side heart performance in preparation for potential surgical intervention

Learn more about pediatric cardiac and vascular surgery at OU Health. You also may want to participate with us in the Oklahoma City chapter of Mended Little Hearts, an online community for children, families and caregivers living with pediatric heart conditions.

Your Children's Surgery Care Team

In addition to OU Health board-certified and fellowship-trained pediatric surgery specialists and subspecialists, as well as the region’s only fellowship-trained pediatric anesthesiologists, your child’s surgical care team may include professionals from multiple healthcare disciplines who also hold pediatric-specific training.

Depending on your child’s particular situation, your surgery care team may involve pediatric radiologists, emergency specialists, nursing care and support services, such as Child Life specialists.