The care of the newborn baby may pose many problems for doctor. From the surgical point of view these mainly concern the management of babies born with various kinds of congenital malformations. The risk of unsuspected surgical emergencies during the neonatal period has decreased over the past several years because of widespread use of ultrasonography for fetal screening.
Most surgically correctable disorders in the neonate will present with vomiting, gastrointestinal bleeding or respiratory distress. The majority of neonatal surgical conditions present shortly after birth or may be diagnosed antenatally by ultrasound scanning (gastroschisis, exomphalos, meconium ileus, etc). This permits antenatal counseling and planning for the birth. Appropriate care of these infants requires close cooperation and communication between the NICU medical team and the pediatric surgeons.
