This is a clinical review of 2,191 pediatric surgical patients under the age of 15 years, operated upon at the Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Chonnam University Hospital from January 1988 to December 1997. The total number of operations in the pediatric age for all specialties were 13,144(13.2 %). The total operations including those performed on adults were 99,555. The most common age group operated upon was under 5 year of age(44.4 %). The number of operations in Division of General Pediatric Surgery were 2,191(16.7 %) out of total 13,144 operations in all pediatric specialties. The patients under 1 year of age in general pediatric surgery was 42.9 %(941/2,191). The most common diseases in neonates were anorectal malformation(20.6 %) and hypertrophic pyloric stenosis( 20.3 %). Infants older than neonates most commonly were operated upon for inguinal hernia(32.4 %) and intussusception(19.6 %). The total mortality rate in the neonatal intensive care unit was 31.3 %. Gastroschisis had the highest mortality.
