THE majority of abdominal surgical conditions in children under one year of age are due directly to some developmental anomaly. Infection, which plays a minor role in the abdominal surgery of the first year of life, subsequently forms the basis of many pathologic processes as it does in adult life. The processes found in infants are identical with those observed in adults, except that they are modified by conditions peculiar to early life. The modifying factors are often not entirely a disadvantage to the surgeon, for an infant's failure to co-operate makes the examiner observe more carefully and judge more . . .
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