pediatric cardiac surgery

[Doctorino]

is pediatric cardiac surgery as tremendously difficult as it is said to be? obviously they operate on very small and delicate structures and there are a ton of anomalies they have to know how to fix. one thing i have heard is that you have to have a "talent" for it, the whole "walk on water" thing. would like to hear from those of you with experience in the area.

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[BlondeDocteur]

IMHO it's not so much that the operative field is tiny and extremely important or that the knowledge base is broad, it's more that it's so crucial to life in such vulnerable patients. The hours are very bad, for obvious reasons, so it tends to attract a certain sort of person who feels it's their life work.

Not being a surgery resident, CT fellow, or congenital cardiac superfellow, this is obviously secondhand observation.

 

[njbmd]

is pediatric cardiac surgery as tremendously difficult as it is said to be? obviously they operate on very small and delicate structures and there are a ton of anomalies they have to know how to fix. one thing i have heard is that you have to have a "talent" for it, the whole "walk on water" thing. would like to hear from those of you with experience in the area.

There is a certain amount of talent required to enter this subsubspecialty of surgery but it's no more or less than any other specialty in medicine. You have to love what you do, have strong academics and the ability to perform the procedures that the specialty requires (again, no different from peds or OB-Gyn). Spine surgeons and neurosurgeons have to work in smaller and tighter areas (that's what loupes are for). In short, there is little "walk on water" with any area of medicine once you are actually practicing. You simply get the job done to the best of your ability and training.