Bedside surgery in the newborn infants: survey of the Italian society of pediatric surgery

Introduction: This is the report of the first official survey from the Italian Society of Pediatric Surgery (ISPS) to appraise the distribution and organization of bedside surgery in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Italy. Methods: A questionnaire requesting general data, staff data and workload data of the centers was developed and sent by means of an online cloud-based software instrument to all Italian pediatric surgery Units. Results: The survey was answered by 34 (65%) out of 52 centers. NICU bedside surgery is reported in 81.8% of the pediatric surgery centers. A lower prevalence of bedside surgical practice in the NICU was reported for Southern Italy and the islands than for Northern Italy and Central Italy (Southern