Clinical Overview

The Emory-Children's Center is one of the largest pediatric multispecialty group practices in Georgia. As the surgical arm of the center, division surgeons perform Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO); minimally invasive techniques for appendectomy, bowel operations, fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux, pyloromyotomy, hernia, pectus excavatum repair, lung biopsy, lung resection and many other procedures; thoracic (chest) surgery; neonatal surgery; oncologic surgery; trauma surgery and surgical critical care; certain urologic procedures; and consultations with parents to discuss surgical problems which have been diagnosed in their infants prenatally.

The primary surgical center is located at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, though Emory pediatric surgeons also do procedures and consultations at Emory University Hospital Midtown, Dekalb Medical Center, Grady Memorial Hospital and the Scottish Rite and Hughes Spalding campuses of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

For the most up-to-date clinical information and appointment scheduling, please visit the Emory-Children's Center at Emory Healthcare or the official Atlanta Pediatric Surgery, Inc. – Emory Division of Pediatric Surgery web site.

The research pursuits of division faculty cover a wide range of conditions and issues. Division chief Dr. Richard Ricketts, who embraced the concept of pediatric minimally invasive surgery early in the decade when it was still not routinely available, is the Surgical Principal Co-Investigator at Emory of the Pediatric Oncology Group and specializes in studying neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis and pediatric oncology.

When he was doing his residency in pediatric surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Mark Wulkan trained with Dr. Keith Georgeson, one of the pioneers of pediatric minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Wulkan's interest in developing pediatric minimally invasive surgical techniques contributed to his establishment of the Minimally Invasive Surgical Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta in 2003, which he continues to direct, and his performance of the first Lap-Band procedure to be done at the hospital to treat adolescent obesity in 2007. He is also interested in the effects of pneumoperitoneum on infants, especially those with complex congenital heart disease.

Dr. Barbara Pettitt's primary research focuses are surgical and medical education. Her current projects include a national needs assessment of volunteer surgical faculty from over 250 surgical training programs and a survey to determine surgical resident knowledge of the "business of surgery." She is also investigating injury prevention and is engaged in a randomized controlled trial of the acquisition and use of home safety devices and surveillance of pediatric injuries assessed in the emergency department.

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