Neonatology is the specialized care of the sick new born including premature and tiny babies. The advent of newer therapeutic modalities, artificial life-support techniques and infection control mechanisms has tremendously decreased mortality in newborns.
A tertiary care unit with advanced equipment including high frequency ventilators caters to premature babies with special needs and those born after high-risk pregnancies such as following in vitro fertilization. The unit provides pre and postoperative management of neonatal emergencies.
It is important that every baby be managed professionally in the first month of life and especially the first hour. Improved imaging even before birth (fetal echo and ultrasound) well-baby clinics and parent support networks have come a long way in changing the face of long term follow up results of surgery and neonatal intensive care on sick premature newborns with low birth weight.
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is 8 beded and staffed and equipped to provide life-saving treatment for premature, low-birth weight newborns and critically ill infants.
State-of-the-art Technology
Available to this multidisciplinary team of health care providers are some of the most advanced monitoring and ventilation technology anywhere. The unit is prepared to handle newborns requiring
- Ventilation.
- Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
- Continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH).
- Total body hypothermia.
- Preoperative and postoperative care.
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
Sick children requiring critical care support are looked after by a dedicated team of professionals in the 8 bedded Level III PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit). The units is well equipped with the most advanced critical care support systems to treat the little patients.
Paediatric Surgery
Children are not ‘little adults’, more so when they require surgical interventions. Paediatric Surgery is the Specialty that treats any child with a surgical problem and provides holistic care, from newborns to adolescents. Unlike adults, children require special care during illness as, not only is their routine interrupted, but also their growth and development. Surgical interventions may have long-term implications unless managed appropriately. Additionally certain developmental abnormalities, which may be associated with other organ defects, need to be detected, evaluated and managed even though they may not manifest clinically. The Pediatric Surgeons are well adept in handling fine surgeries in babies. They are experts in managing the “Child with a Surgical Problem” and not just the “Surgical problem” in a child. The children requiring Paediatric Surgical consultation are not only those with obvious external structural defects but also children with a lot of other internal structural and functional deficiencies. These may involve any organ from head to toe. Some of these are even picked up by ultrasonography done during pregnancy and need counseling and planned evaluation after delivery to prevent any loss of structure and function of the organs.
