Introduction

The stomach plays a central role in nutrient storage, digestion, and the regulated delivery of gastric contents to the small intestine, and disruption of its anatomy or function can produce clinically important disease throughout childhood[1]. Although many gastric conditions in children are managed medically or endoscopically, pediatric surgeons encounter a distinct spectrum of disorders requiring operative evaluation or treatment, ranging from congenital and developmental abnormalities in neonates and infants to acquired obstructive, inflammatory, functional, and neoplastic conditions in older children and adolescents[2] [3]. Surgical involvement may be required for gastric outlet obstruction, perforation, volvulus or ischemia, congenital anomalies, complications of peptic ulcer disease, bezoars, and gastric tumors, as well as for procedures that use the stomach to provide durable enteral access or address severe gastroesophageal reflux disease[4][5][6][7][8][9]. The clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, and operative considerations vary substantially with patient age and underlying disease, making an understanding of normal gastric development, anatomy, physiology, and age-specific pathology particularly important in pediatric surgical practice[1][2]. This chapter reviews the developmental and physiologic foundations of the pediatric stomach and the evaluation and surgical management of gastric disorders encountered from the neonatal period through adolescence[1][2].

see also Congenital Gastric Anomalies, Peptic Ulcer Disease, Gastroparesis, Spontaneous Gastric Perforationand Gastric Tumors