Department of Pediatrics
Department of Pediatrics
The Department of Pediatrics

Gastroenterology

Our division advances the treatment of pediatric gastrointestinal and liver disorders through excellent patient care, research and education.


Gastroenterology

Division Head : J. Marc Rhoads, MD, Professor

About Our Division

We have clinics that are happily busy and well-staffed with nurses, dieticians, doctors, residents, students, and medical assistants.  Our division has strengths in many areas, including the management of short bowel syndrome, liver and intestinal transplantation, irritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia, acute and chronic diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease, vomiting and gastroesophageal reflux, and peptic ulcer disease. Liver transplantation is a strength of our program, and we are the service that follows the children before and after transplantation, along with the surgeons.  Our gastroenterologists perform many procedures, usually with anesthesiology support, including endoscopy, esophageal pH-impedance probe testing, colonoscopy, breath hydrogen analysis, percutaneous gastrostomy placement, polyp removal, foreign body removal, therapeutic endoscopy (to stop bleeding, variceal ligation), esophageal and anorectal manometry,and liver biopsy. Current areas of active basic and translational research include necrotizing enterocolitis, infantile colic, relationship between symptoms and diet in infants with colic, gastrointestinal and liver involvement in mitochondrial disorders, and functional dyspepsia. Some of our most important collaborators include pediatric surgeons, neurologists, and neonatologists, and our research utilizes core facilities at U.T. and Baylor, through the N.I.H.-Funded Digestive Diseases Center.