Department of Surgery

Pediatric Surgery

Creating the future of medicine with the knowledge and skills unique to pediatric surgery.
  • Pioneering fetal therapy through medicine–engineering collaboration
  • Research on regenerative medicine/tissue engineering
  • Basic research/clinical research in the field of pediatric surgery
  • Long-term follow-up and quality-of-life (QOL) study
  • Global collaboration and interprofessional teamwork

Professor　Miho Watanabe
Pediatric Surgery
The Department of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Osaka traces its origins to the work of Drs. Ueda and Okamoto in the 1950s and was established as a formal chair in 1982. The first professor, Dr. Okada, the second professor Dr. Fukuzawa, and the third professor Dr. Okuyama studied and developed total parenteral nutrition, pediatric oncology and transplantation, and endoscopic surgery, respectively. We care for patients from the fetal period through adulthood, and under the fourth chair, Prof. Watanabe, we are also taking on fetal therapy.

Pediatric surgery is a medicine that connects the “starting line of life”to future. By accompanying patients from the fetal period through adulthood, we do understand the nature of diseases in depth and can draw a future of medical care.

The University of Osaka Department of Pediatric Surgery focuses on basic research.
We integrate basic and clinical research with medicine–engineering partnerships and international collaboration, and addressing to create future medical care with our pediatric-specific knowledge and technique.
With our research seeds that come as insights derived from a patient, we are trying to plow back our research results to clinical setting and deliver a new medical value.

Challenge to fetal medicine and collaboration with engineering

We are engaged in fetal surgery, including fetoscopic procedures. Through collaboration with engineering, we develop new surgical devices and medical tools and conduct model‑based studies to improve safety—paving the way for the next generation of care.

Research on regenerative medicine/tissue engineering

We have been collaborating with the fields of engineering/regenerative medicine to advance our development of tissue regeneration and cellular therapy. Our activities are characterized with studies bridging basic and clinical research to realize treatment in line with pediatric surgery-specific anatomy and growth.

Basic research in the field of pediatric surgery

We are also working basic research including congenital diseases, pediatric cancer, transplantation, and immunology.
We are investigating various themes such as molecular-targeted drugs, mechanism of post-transplantation rejection, proteins involved in the intestinal immunity and so on. We connect what we find in the clinical setting to research, aiming to build up knowledge that leads to future medical care.

Long-term follow-up and quality-of-life study

In pediatric surgery, completion of surgery does not mean the end of treatment.
As children grow, new challenges and needs emerge. We, therefore, are also committed to studies on patients
’ long-term quality of life (QOL), identifying issues that appear over time and building systems of support.

Global collaboration and interprofessional teamwork

We collaborate with institutions in and outside Japan to investigate rare diseases and develop novel therapies. Our research teams span multiple professions and disciplines—including obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine, nursing, and engineering—to deliver better medicine together.