Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Many pediatric surgeons practice at children's hospitals.
Pediatric surgeons have completed a general surgery residency, then complete two more years of subspecialty fellowship training before they are eligible to take the board examination for official subspecialty certification. In the United States and Canada, approximately 35 surgeons complete training as pediatric surgeons each year.
Pediatric surgery arose in the middle of the 20th century as the surgical care of birth defects required novel techniques and methods and became more commonly based at children's hospitals.