Special Articles

1.　The present and future of pediatric surgery in Japan

Tadashi Iwanaka
Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine

Abstract

　There are 244 board-certified pediatric surgeons and 211 pediatric surgical instructors less than 65 years old in Japan. Board-certified general surgeons wishing to become board-certified pediatric surgeons have to perform an additional 150 pediatric surgical procedure including more than 20 neonatal operations. Board-certified pediatric surgeons also need to keep performing 100 pediatric operations in each 5-year period in order to maintain their board certification. Recently, the number of children is decreasing and the number of pediatric surgical procedures is also decreasing. In this situation, young pediatric surgeons need to share surgical opportunities and board-certified instructors should start to discuss how to teach young pediatric surgeons in university hospitals and children’s medical centers, dispatch them to suburban and rural clinical hospitals, and help them maintain a good quality of life in busy hospitals. The present and future of pediatric surgery in Japan are described.

Keywords：Pediatric surgery，Pediatric radiology，Specialty certification system