Special care for kids' bad breaks

What’s rare is to find, once you reach the hospital, that there’s a specially trained pediatric orthopedic surgeon there to treat children’s bone or joint injuries.

Any parent knows that kids are accidents waiting to happen. Toddlers topple on the furniture, teens get hurt playing hockey, and the childhood years in between are filled with a hundred other possible detours to the emergency room. And when they’re injured, children often require orthopedic care. What’s rare is to find, once you reach the hospital, that there’s a specially trained pediatric orthopedic surgeon there to treat children’s bone or joint injuries.

Take a bone fracture, the most common reason kids are brought to the ER—especially now that school sports are back in season. “Kids’ fractures often are in different patterns than adults’, and there are different consequences, especially if they involve the bone’s growth centers,” says Lawrence Stankovits, M.D., director of pediatric orthopedics at The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center. “These fractures may require special management in how they are set and how casts are put on.”

Other orthopedic problems in kids are also frequently different from those of adults and need careful treatment to ensure not only healing but proper development as the child grows, says Dr. Stankovits. Procedures may also require that the youngster be sedated, and Dr. Stankovits’ team includes pediatric anesthesiologists, also specially trained in treating children.

Pediatric orthopedics is “a bit of a scarce subspecialty,” says Dr. Stankovits, who did residency training at Monmouth and then a fellowship at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. “You have to like dealing with kids and parents, and many doctors do not,” he says. “But I love it. I was going to be a pediatrician before I was accepted in the residency.” It helps that he’s a father of three, ages 4 to 11, who are all “jocks,” he says. “And I played football at Princeton, so I know about injuries. I have a good rap with the kids.

What pediatric orthopedic surgeons do

"Pediatric orthopedic surgeons treat children from the newborn stage through the teenage years. They choose to make pediatric care the core of their medical practice, and the unique nature of medical and surgical care of children is learned from advanced training and experience in practice.

"Pediatric orthopedic surgeons diagnose, treat, and manage children's musculoskeletal problems including the following:

• limb and spine deformities, such as club foot and scoliosis
• gait abnormalities, such as limping
• bone and joint infections
• broken bones

For more information on pediatric orthopedic care at The Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, please call 1-888-724-7123