Liaison psychiatry in pediatric surgery--a promising approach.

Liaison psychiatry in pediatric surgery is described and the experiences at the University Children's Hospital in Zurich are reported. The patients seen by the child psychiatrist in surgery are specified and compared with those seen in pediatrics. For the most part the same psychiatric diagnoses were made in both groups with some differences in frequency. It is concluded that liaison psychiatry should be implemented in pediatric surgery, as has long been the case in pediatrics.