Can ENT surgeons operate on peds without fellowship

[dangit]

I like surgery and I enjoy working with pediatric patients. I don't want to do pediatrics surgery because I don't want to go thru 5 years of GS and then 2 years of fellowship.

So I have 2 questions:

1) I am deciding on urology or ENT and so far, ENT has caught my eye because of the opportunity to operate on the pediatric population. Would this be a good reason to choose ENT over urology. I know with urology you have to do a 2 year fellowship post residency. If ENT allows me to operate on peds without doing a fellowship (i know a fellowship does exist), I'd rather go the ENT route.

2) I'm choosing between urology and ENT because I want to be a surgeon, but also want a good lifestyle. I read that these 2 specialties offer both the opportunity to be a surgeon and a good lifestlye, but urology might be a lil better than ENT for lifestyle. Can anyone confirm this? Is it that significant of a difference in lifestyle during residency and after?

Thanks!

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[rigid]

From my understanding the majority of ENT bread and butter is performed on paediatric population (tonsillectomies, myringotomies + insertion of grommets)

 

[Butler]

I like surgery and I enjoy working with pediatric patients. I don't want to do pediatrics surgery because I don't want to go thru 5 years of GS and then 2 years of fellowship.

So I have 2 questions:

1) I am deciding on urology or ENT and so far, ENT has caught my eye because of the opportunity to operate on the pediatric population. Would this be a good reason to choose ENT over urology. I know with urology you have to do a 2 year fellowship post residency. If ENT allows me to operate on peds without doing a fellowship (i know a fellowship does exist), I'd rather go the ENT route.

2) I'm choosing between urology and ENT because I want to be a surgeon, but also want a good lifestyle. I read that these 2 specialties offer both the opportunity to be a surgeon and a good lifestlye, but urology might be a lil better than ENT for lifestyle. Can anyone confirm this? Is it that significant of a difference in lifestyle during residency and after?

Thanks!

Shadowed several ENTs that were not fellowshiped. Almost half of their cases were on kids.

 

[OtoHNS]

Yes.

 

[dangit]

Thanks for the responses!

I had another question. If I wanted to do cleft lip/palate repair, would I be able to do that through ENT? Would I need to do a fellowship?

 

[Butler]

Thanks for the responses!

I had another question. If I wanted to do cleft lip/palate repair, would I be able to do that through ENT? Would I need to do a fellowship?

Yep.
http://www.sfmatch.org/fellowship/f_facial_plastic/index.htm

 

[ZagDoc]

Thanks for the responses!

I had another question. If I wanted to do cleft lip/palate repair, would I be able to do that through ENT? Would I need to do a fellowship?

Most "general ENTs" have about a 30-40% pediatric population. Most of those peds cases are fairly basic in nature (tubes, tonsils, adenoidectomies, basic ear cases, tympanoplasty, etc). There is a peds ENT fellowship - fellowship level cases are generally pediatric airway, congenital neck masses, EXIT procedures, lymphovascular malformations, difficult ear cases, and pediatric FESS (and more, but thats the broad strokes). Some peds ENTs also do craniofacial, it depends on where you trained. You can get into craniofacial through ENT, plastics, or OMFS. Peds ENT is generally the "quickest" route (5+1 to 2 years), unless you do an integrated plastics residency.

 

[dangit]

how competitive are peds ENT fellowship that train you in craniofacial? i know for gen surg, it's pretty competitive for peds surgery. thanks for your response!

 

[Leforte]

Most craniofacial surgeons go through the plastics route. That is not to say that you can't do ENT/plastics fellowship/craniofacial. While you can be trained in cleft surgery in a Peds ENT fellowship, I am not aware of any that do craniosynostosis, mandibular distraction, etc, which are common craniofacial surgeries.

 

[DrLevine]

Nice to see these ENT information

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

One of our pedi guys does distractions. He did pedi fellowship only.

 

[dangit]

Thanks for all the great info!

 

[neutropeniaboy]

If ENT allows me to operate on peds without doing a fellowship (i know a fellowship does exist), I'd rather go the ENT route.

We should all be clear about one thing: a fellowship does not permit one to do a certain procedure. There are plenty of people out there who have not done fellowships and do the same surgeries that fellowship-trained surgeons perform. While I would like to think fellowship would enable one to perform some surgeries better than those who are not fellowship trained, that isn't always the case.