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Surgical specialties

Paediatric Surgery Diploma

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A diploma in paediatric surgery for the decisions that matter most in children's surgical care: recognising the sick child, managing the newborn with a congenital anomaly, treating the acute abdomen and the acute scrotum, and knowing when a child needs a specialist centre.

Twenty-five weekly sessions across five modules take you from resuscitation, consent and safeguarding, through neonatal surgery, emergencies and trauma, paediatric urology, tumours and the chest, to long-term care and transition to adult services. Teaching is anchored on guidance from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the European Reference Network for rare inherited and congenital anomalies (ERNICA) and the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN), with US differences flagged, and is taught live by practising specialists you can question.

Course director
To be announced
Format
25 live weekly sessions on Zoom, in 5 modules
Dates
Confirmed when enrolment opens

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Two newborn chest X-rays side by side: before surgery, gas-filled bowel loops fill the left chest and push the heart to the right; after repair, both lungs are expanded with a chest drain in place.
Image: neonatal chest radiographs before and after diaphragmatic hernia repair by Hellerhoff via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who it is for

Senior trainees, fellows and early-career consultants in paediatric surgery, and general surgeons, urologists and paediatricians who treat children with surgical conditions, worldwide.

The programme

25 one-hour sessions in 5 modules, each with its learning objectives. This is the draft programme: the course director reviews and refines it before enrolment opens, so session titles may change.

Module 1 · Sessions 1 to 5The child as a surgical patient

  1. 1. Recognising and resuscitating the sick child

    • Assess a sick child with a structured approach adapted for age
    • Prescribe resuscitation and maintenance fluids safely for a child in line with NICE NG29
    • Start sepsis treatment in line with NICE guidance and recognise where US criteria differ
    • Arrange safe transfer of a child to a specialist surgical centre

  2. 2. Perioperative care and day-case surgery for children

    • Apply current fasting guidance, including clear fluids up to one hour before anaesthesia
    • Plan multimodal analgesia that avoids drugs unsafe for children
    • Decide whether to proceed when a child has a recent respiratory infection
    • Select children who are suitable for day-case surgery

  3. 3. Consent, safeguarding and communicating with families

    • Assess whether a young person is competent to consent to surgery
    • Obtain valid consent when parents disagree with each other or refuse treatment
    • Recognise injuries that suggest abuse and make a safeguarding referral
    • Break bad news to parents using a structured approach

  4. 4. Imaging the child

    • Choose ultrasound, contrast study, CT or MRI for common paediatric surgical problems
    • Limit radiation exposure when imaging children
    • Interpret an upper contrast study performed for suspected malrotation
    • Plan sedation or anaesthesia for imaging with the wider team

  5. 5. Children's surgical services and networks

    • Decide which children can be treated safely in a district hospital
    • Use network transfer criteria for children who need specialist care
    • Explain how centralising rare operations has changed outcomes
    • Use outcome data to improve a children's surgical service
Module 2 · Sessions 6 to 10Neonatal surgery

  1. 6. Oesophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula

    • Diagnose oesophageal atresia at birth and screen for associated anomalies
    • Plan primary repair or a staged approach for long-gap atresia
    • Manage anastomotic leak and stricture after repair
    • Organise long-term follow-up in line with European consensus

  2. 7. Congenital diaphragmatic hernia and abdominal wall defects

    • Stabilise a newborn with congenital diaphragmatic hernia using a standardised protocol
    • Counsel parents about fetal tracheal occlusion using the trial evidence
    • Choose between primary closure and a silo for gastroschisis
    • Plan staged management of a giant omphalocele

  3. 8. Neonatal bowel obstruction and malrotation

    • Treat bilious vomiting in a newborn as malrotation with volvulus until proven otherwise
    • Plan surgery for duodenal and small bowel atresia
    • Diagnose Hirschsprung disease and plan initial decompression
    • Classify an anorectal malformation and decide between primary repair and a stoma

  4. 9. Necrotising enterocolitis and the preterm surgical infant

    • Recognise when necrotising enterocolitis needs surgery
    • Choose between laparotomy and peritoneal drainage using trial evidence
    • Distinguish spontaneous intestinal perforation from necrotising enterocolitis
    • Time inguinal hernia repair in a preterm infant using trial evidence

  5. 10. Neonatal jaundice, biliary atresia and choledochal malformations

    • Recognise conjugated jaundice in an infant and investigate it urgently
    • Explain why early portoenterostomy improves outcomes in biliary atresia
    • Refer an infant with suspected biliary atresia to a specialist centre without delay
    • Plan excision of a choledochal malformation
Module 3 · Sessions 11 to 15The acute abdomen, emergencies and trauma

  1. 11. Appendicitis in children

    • Stratify a child with suspected appendicitis using a validated score and ultrasound
    • Counsel families on non-operative treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis using current evidence
    • Choose antibiotics and their duration for complicated appendicitis
    • Manage an appendix mass or abscess in a child

  2. 12. The vomiting infant: pyloric stenosis, intussusception and reflux

    • Correct fluid and electrolyte disturbance before pyloromyotomy
    • Arrange image-guided reduction of intussusception and know when to operate
    • Distinguish reflux from surgical causes of vomiting in an infant
    • Select children for fundoplication after failed medical treatment

  3. 13. Inguinal hernia, hydrocele and the acute scrotum

    • Time inguinal hernia repair in infants and children
    • Reduce an incarcerated inguinal hernia and plan repair
    • Take a child with suspected testicular torsion to theatre without waiting for imaging
    • Distinguish torsion of the appendix testis and epididymitis from testicular torsion

  4. 14. Abdominal and thoracic trauma in children

    • Assess an injured child within a trauma team using age-adjusted values
    • Decide when a child needs CT using UK and US decision rules
    • Manage liver and spleen injury without surgery when it is safe
    • Recognise abdominal injuries that suggest abuse

  5. 15. Swallowed foreign bodies, constipation and gastrointestinal bleeding

    • Treat a swallowed button battery as an emergency and arrange its removal
    • Manage ingestion of multiple magnets
    • Separate functional constipation from surgical causes
    • Investigate painless rectal bleeding in a child
Module 4 · Sessions 16 to 20Paediatric urology, tumours and the chest

  1. 16. Undescended testis, hypospadias and the foreskin

    • Time orchidopexy in line with European and US guidance
    • Plan laparoscopic assessment of an impalpable testis
    • Assess hypospadias and plan the timing of repair
    • Advise families on the medical indications for circumcision

  2. 17. Urinary tract infection, reflux and antenatal hydronephrosis

    • Investigate a child with urinary tract infection in line with NICE NG224
    • Decide on antibiotic prophylaxis for vesicoureteric reflux using trial evidence
    • Plan follow-up and surgery for antenatal hydronephrosis
    • Recognise posterior urethral valves and arrange urgent bladder drainage

  3. 18. Solid tumours of childhood

    • Investigate an abdominal mass in a child
    • Explain why European and North American protocols differ on surgery for kidney tumours
    • Apply safe surgical principles to tumour biopsy and resection
    • Plan central venous access and fertility preservation with the oncology team

  4. 19. Thoracic surgery in children

    • Counsel parents about an antenatally detected lung malformation
    • Choose between chest drain with fibrinolytics and thoracoscopy for empyema
    • Select children for pectus excavatum repair
    • Recognise an inhaled foreign body and arrange bronchoscopy

  5. 20. Gastrostomy, intestinal failure and long-term access

    • Choose a gastrostomy technique for an individual child
    • Decide with the family whether fundoplication is needed alongside gastrostomy
    • Manage a child with short bowel syndrome with the intestinal rehabilitation team
    • Prevent and treat central line infection and occlusion
Module 5 · Sessions 21 to 25Long-term care, special problems and professional practice

  1. 21. Long-term outcomes and transition to adult care

    • Plan structured follow-up after major neonatal surgery
    • Set up a bowel management programme for faecal incontinence
    • Assess quality of life and psychological needs during long-term follow-up
    • Plan a safe transition from paediatric to adult surgical care

  2. 22. Neck lumps, skin lesions and vascular anomalies

    • Diagnose and plan excision of thyroglossal and branchial anomalies
    • Decide when cervical lymphadenopathy in a child needs biopsy
    • Distinguish haemangiomas from vascular malformations using the international classification
    • Refer a child with a vascular anomaly to a multidisciplinary team

  3. 23. Ovarian and gynaecological problems in girls

    • Recognise ovarian torsion and operate without delay
    • Preserve the ovary at detorsion even when it looks non-viable
    • Plan management of an ovarian mass that avoids unnecessary removal of the ovary
    • Recognise obstructive genital tract anomalies in adolescent girls

  4. 24. Minimally invasive surgery and new technology in children

    • Decide when minimally invasive surgery is appropriate in an infant
    • Adapt laparoscopic technique to the physiology of small children
    • Plan a safe learning curve for a new minimally invasive procedure
    • Introduce a new procedure in children through local governance and NICE guidance

  5. 25. Complex case review and professional practice

    • Apply the course to complex paediatric surgical cases in a panel discussion
    • Present a paediatric surgical complication at a morbidity and mortality meeting
    • Fulfil the professional duty of candour after harm to a child
    • Plan your own development towards a general or subspecialty paediatric surgical practice

What the diploma includes

  • 25 live sessions on Zoom, one evening a week, with recordings for the weeks you miss.
  • Practising specialists teaching live, so you can put your questions to them.
  • Weekly MCQs and a final written assessment.
  • A digital certificate carrying your final classification.

Lead or teach the Paediatric Surgery Diploma

We are looking for a course director and faculty from the specialty. Sessions are one hour in the UK evening, live on Zoom, and paid.

Apply to teach