Gastrostomy is one of the most common procedures performed in the pediatric population. The first gastrostomy was performed over 150 years ago, with the first successful attempts in children occurring in the late 1800’s. [1] The procedure and its use in Pediatric Surgery have significantly evolved over the past several decades with the introduction of endoscopic and laparoscopic techniques to s...

The endocrine system is crucial for maintaining whole-body homeostasis. Little is known regarding endocrine hormones secreted by the heart other than atrial/brain natriuretic peptides discovered over 30 years ago. Here, we identify growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) as a heart-derived hormone that regulates body growth. We show that pediatric heart disease induces GDF15 synthesis and secr...

BACKGROUND Failure to thrive impairs children's weight gain and growth, their defenses against infection, and their psychomotor and intellectual development. METHODS This paper is a review of pertinent articles that were published from 1995 to October 2010 and contained the terms "failure to thrive", "underweight", "malnutrition", "malabsorption", "maldigestion" and "refeeding syndrome". The ...

Failure to thrive in childhood is a state of undernutrition due to inadequate caloric intake, inadequate caloric absorption, or excessive caloric expenditure. In the United States, it is seen in 5 to 10 percent of children in primary care settings. Although failure to thrive is often defined as a weight for age that falls below the 5th percentile on multiple occasions or weight deceleration tha...

The mother was a 34-year-old, white, married woman who worked as a bank cashier. She was previously well and had not had breast surgery or infertility. It was a planned, uneventful, second pregnancy. She had a spontaneous vaginal, vertex delivery at 42 weeks following a prolonged second stage. She sustained a large, second-degree tear. Following the delivery, she required intravenous oxytocin; ...