Digestive Surgery

Why choose us

Nationally Ranked Children’s Hospitals

Both NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital are among the nation's leading centers for the diagnosis and treatment of childhood diseases. Both are major referral centers for complex and rare digestive disorders in infants, children, and adolescents.

Dedicated Digestive Disease Centers

NewYork-Presbyterian has two dedicated digestive care centers that specialize in the unique needs of children:

• Center for Advanced Digestive Care at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center is one of the nation's leading multidisciplinary centers for the diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases in adult and pediatric patients. The CADC provides a single point of access to some of the nation's best doctors, newest technologies, and advanced therapies.
• The NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition provides comprehensive pediatric care for a broad range of gastrointestinal, nutritional, and liver disorders. It has garnered a world-class reputation from its multidisciplinary team of physicians, researchers, dieticians, social workers, and nurses, and the unparalleled quality of its clinical programs and research accomplishments.

Outstanding Expertise and Innovation

Our pediatric digestive surgeons have gained national and international reputations for their expertise and innovative approaches to these digestive conditions:

• Esophageal atresia:  NewYork-Presbyterian has decades of experience in the treatment of infants born with esophageal atresia, providing the most advanced technological approaches to repair the abnormality. At the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center REACH Clinic (Researching Esophageal Atresia for Children’s Health) and at the Center for Advanced Digestive Care at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, pediatric surgeons use a minimally invasive surgical approach involving three small incisions in the chest, whenever possible. Coupled with a multidisciplinary team approach for the management of this condition, our team offers outstanding care with excellent outcomes.
• Biliary atresia: NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia surgeons were the first to bring the Kasai Procedure from Japan to the U.S. This innovative surgery bypasses blocked bile ducts by connecting the liver directly to the intestinal tract, and can delay the need for transplant until age 10 to 15. By then the donor pool is larger and these patients will not have been on immune suppression from an early age.
• Complex congenital anorectal malformations (ARM) and Cloacal malformations:  NewYork-Presbyterian is one of a few centers that treats anorectal malformations and cloacal malformations, which are very complicated birth defects involving the colon, rectum, urinary tract, and genital tract. Treatment involves complex urologic and genitourinary reconstruction. Our pediatric surgeons collaborate in multidisciplinary teams with urologic surgeons, pediatric radiologists, and other specialists to diagnose, treat, and manage the patient throughout childhood. We treat patients who are referred to us from all over the world.
• Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH): This condition occurs when the diaphragmatic components do not fuse properly, allowing the stomach, spleen, liver, and intestines to enter the chest cavity. Babies with CDH have small, underdeveloped lungs due to the presence of the abdominal organs in the chest. NewYork-Presbyterian provides comprehensive care for infants born with these anomalies:
  • Prenatal Care: If your fetus is found to have CDH, we'll begin planning his or her care before birth at our two prenatal care centers: the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Carmen and John Thain Center for Prenatal Pediatrics and the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s Fetal Care Center. Our interdisciplinary team of experts cares for both you and your baby and provides you with the information you need to make informed decisions.
  • Newborn Care: If you have a child born with CDH, we can coordinate all of the facets of his or her care. Our CDH program brings together a team of pediatric specialists, including a pediatric surgeon, neonatologist, and cardiologist with special expertise in pulmonary hypertension, pulmonologist, gastroenterologist, orthopedist, developmental pediatrician, and psychologist to follow and manage your child's care throughout infancy and childhood.
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): Inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic conditions that can affect more than just the digestive system. Our pediatric surgeons specialize in minimally invasive, laparoscopic colon surgeries and are at the forefront of research into new and more advanced treatments. They collaborate in a larger team of IBD specialists that include pediatric gastroenterologists, nutritionists, immunologists, and social workers.
• Pediatric digestive cancer surgery: Our teams provide comprehensive care of children with a variety of digestive liver, and biliary cancers. We apply the latest advances in diagnostics and treatments to dramatically improve the outcome for infants, children, and adolescents with cancer.
• Adolescent bariatric surgery: Located at both NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky, the Centers for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery are among only a handful of U.S. centers approved to offer weight loss surgery to young patients. Our centers’ experts include specialists in pediatric gastroenterology, endocrinology, nutrition, psychiatry, surgery, and other specialties who work together to help adolescents achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
• Emergency surgery: Children who develop serious nutritional challenges often come to us as pediatric surgical emergencies. We collaborate with specialists in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, and if needed, can perform intestinal transplantation surgery.
• Liver, small bowel and multivisceral transplant: The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center specializes in caring for children with all forms of disease of the liver, small bowel, pancreas and stomach. Intestinal and multivisceral transplantation is a surgery that removes diseased or malfunctioning organs along the gastrointestinal tract and replaces them with healthy donor organs. With a world-renowned team of doctors in multiple specialties, families everywhere come to us for diagnosis, treatments, surgery, an transplantations, and long-term care.

Access to World-Class Pediatric Specialists

Your child's healthcare team has access to all of the various pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists who practice at NewYork-Presbyterian, ensuring that all of your child's medical needs can be addressed.