AAP News Vol. 14 No. 8 August 1998, p. 14
© 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kemp, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Surgical Section celebrates 50th anniversary: Future's looking 'more molecular more genetic,' experts predict

Carla Kemp

Back in the 1940s, children endured operations without anesthesia because surgeons weren't sure the youngsters would wake up. Some physicians even believed newborns didn't feel pain, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., FAAP, wrote in a 1997 Newsweek article.

As anesthesiologists became more skilled and surgeons discovered children were not just "small adults" who could be treated with the same techniques and lower doses of drugs, the field of pediatric surgery blossomed. William E. Ladd, M.D., FAAP, and Robert E. Gross, M.D., FAAP, were among those leading the way, in 1941 publishing the first modern American textbook on child surgery, according to Dr. Koop, a founding member of the AAP Section on Surgery.