PEDIATRICS : Grand Round Clinical Case Discussions

Preface : --- Bedside grand round is the most informative educational program in any clinical specialty, and pediatrics is no exception. This provides a forum for collective and focused thinking pertaining to the problems at hand. Grand round discussions are carried out today in a rather formal way in a class room setting after a complete work up of the case. However, this is far removed from real life scenarios, where before coming to a definite diagnosis we go through thought processes that are at times right and at times wrong. This book is a humble attempt to disseminate such bedside discussions during our grand rounds in the pediatric unit that I head. The cases may be at different levels of work up on the day of discussion and hence cases are discussed with the available information on that particular day. By this, it is hoped that the young residents get better trained in their approach to the problems from the initial stages of work up of a case. No attempt is made for a complete discussion of any case, because such complete discussions never happen in bedside clinics. However, the brief bedside discussions usually stimulate interest in residents to read and understand disease processes from the rapidly enlarging medical literature. The same inquisitiveness is expected to get kindled after reading the bedside discussions from this book and detailed information on various aspects of the illnesses are left for the residents to read from literature. I am very appreciative of my residents for handing over their scribbled notes of my bedside discussions, which helped this project materialize. I dedicate this book to all the residents in pediatrics. -- A Santhosh Kumar