Department of Pediatric Surgery

Established in 1965

Professor Ara Babloyan is the Head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery since 1997.
Professor Albert Vanyan was the Head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery from 1975 to 1997.
Professor Emma Martikyan was the Head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery from 1965 to 1975.
Professors A. Minasyan, G. Mhoyan, Associate Professors R. Petrosyan, E. Davtyan, S. Karapetyan, assistant Professors A. Gevorgyan, V. Gevorgyan, A. Tunyan and others have worked in this department during different years. Thanks to the staff’s efforts a number of exceptional and complicated surgeries are introduced and widely used in the Republic of Armenia.
During the course of Head activity considerable changes in different directions of pediatric surgery have taken place, such as:

•  Pediatric thoracic surgery was established by Professor Albert Vanyan and he introduced a number of new diagnostic and curative investigations, such as bronchoscopy, bronchography, diagnostics and treatment of acute respiratory distress in bronchial-pulmonary diseases. These developments are now in successful use in medical center “SurbAstvatsamayr”.
• Means of Abdominal Surgery since 60-ies has been widened, modernized and improved during last years in aspects of diagnostics, treatment and management of patients.
• In management of portal hypertension sclerotherapeutic methods of controlling bleeding from varicose dilated esophageal veins and the methods of surgical interventions on large intestine are being improved.
• A big step is done in the sphere of pediatric urology. First time the kidney transplantation in children was performed in Armenia in 1991. Endosurgical percutaneous morphological investigations are being carried out and introduced in the course of treatment of diseases of genitourinary system. Wide employment of plastic and reconstructive surgical interventions on kidneys and urinary tract are practiced at ARABKIR Medical Center.
• There is a notable progress in neonatal surgery, especially in the field of pre and postoperative care, diagnostics, conservative and surgical treatment. Considerable improvements are noticed in treatment of congenital malformations and diseases of esophagus, anorectal region, intestines and anterior abdominal wall.
• Huge work is being carried out in the Center of Pediatric orthopedy and traumatology. Contemporary methods of diagnostics and treatment of congenital anomalies and disease of locomotive system are being developed, improved, introduced and practiced. Endosurgical arthroscopic management of gross joints and mode of gnothobiological isolation of severe lesions are widely executed. Issues of rehabilitation and prosthetics of disabled persons are greatly emphasized.

The basic medical institutions of the Department are:

• “Arabkir” Medical Center – Institute of Child and Adolescents Health
• “Surb Astvatsamayr” Medical Center
• “Muratsan” Clinical Complex, YSMU

Pediatric surgery is taught to the students of second course of magistracy through lectures, seminars and practical workshops in Armenian, Russian and English. The course involves pediatric thoracic, abdominal, urological surgical topics, as well as congenital malformations, pyoinflammatory and emergency surgical diseases.
During practical workshops students are introduced to the diagnostic methods of surgical diseases and dressing of patients, take part in daily rounds. They are participating in surgeries as observers and discussing the taught materials with practical examples at operating table.
The lectures are accompanied by electronic demonstrative slides and presentations. The duration of each cycle is 2 weeks. At the end of first week students write a test assignment and by the end of second week they are passing written MCQ examination.
In order to teach the students to the practical skills in pediatric surgical department training simulators of different employment are present: starting from catheterization of urine bladder and ending with skin suturing.

Clinical residency
13 clinical residents are currently getting their narrow specialization in the Department in 2012-2013. 10 out of them are in their second and the others in third last year of study. All residents periodically are changing their base hospital through rotation to be specialized in all fields of pediatric surgery. Duration of residency is three years and the course includes almost all aspects of pediatric surgery discipline from thoracic surgery to urology.
Fellowship
Department annually organizes fellowship for pediatric surgeons with duration of three years and develops candidates of medical sciences of appropriate field. This year 1 fellow will graduate, whose research is investigating the surgical aspects of esophageal congenital malformations.
Advanced training of medical personnel
Medical University authorizes the Department to train specialists. It organizes advanced training courses for the representatives of different medical specialties and for paramedical personnel.
The following specialists are doing their advanced trainings in the Department:

• pediatrician,
• pediatric surgeon,
• pediatric nephrologist,
• urologist,
• endoscopist,
• emergency doctor,
• nurse:

The following scientific themes are included in research activities of the Department

• Congenital and hereditary diseases of children in Armenia
• Surgical aspects of kidney transplantation in Armenia
• Aspects of surgical treatment of pyoinflammatory diseases
  Annually more than 10 scientific articles published in local and international journals thanks to the Department staff efforts.