UPMC Children's Hospital

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you all.  I’ve found that the second year, although less stressful, is still quite busy.  With moving around from site to site, studying for the monthly exams, job hunting, and working full-time I’ve found that I haven’t had as much time to blog as I would like.

Tomorrow will be the start of my third week at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.  Like the name suggests, Children’s Hospital is dedicated to the care of infants, children, and young adults. Their services include ENT, emergency medicine, childhood cancer, transplant programs, and much more. The world of pediatric pathology is quite different than adult pathology; therefore this rotation site is an invaluable experience.

Children's is primarily a surgical pathology rotation, but there are occasionally autopsy cases. The Pathology Department has three amazing pathologists’ assistants who work with you at the grossing bench.This rotation gives you the opportunity to gain experience with the pathologies that are more common in children than adults. Some of the classic cases include: congenital heart malformation, Hirschsprung’s disease, bone cancer (ex- osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma), Wilms’ tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, and leukemia.  

Normal position of heart and lungs.

A cartoon of a congenital condition, situs inversus, where the
major visceral organs are a mirror image of their normal positions.
Typically these people can live "normal" healthy lives - the body is amazing!