Bangalore: To deal with the rising urological complications among kids, the Birthright by Rainbow Children’s Hospital launched a dedicated “Centre for Advanced Paediatric Urology” at its Marathalli campus.
This dedicated centre is a one-stop-service with varied specialties like Pediatric Radiology, Pediatric Nephrology and allied fields being available under single roof. The centre also has special expertise in doing most of the complex urological surgery in kids by minimal incision / endoscopy / laparoscopy.
RCH’s Pediatric Surgeon and Pediatric Urologist Dr. Antony Robert Charles said that children were not miniature adults. Hence, their problems needed unique and tailored solutions. A lot of children have trouble with the kidney, tubes and the bladder which needed expert management.
Citing a few recent cases studies, Dr Charles said that a few newborn babies were born with blocks in the urine flow. This can lead to complications very early in life leading to infections and bulging kidneys and may lead to renal failure if not identified at early stages. With advanced investigations (pediatric urology) and expert comprehensive team management by the pediatric nephrology team and the pediatric urology team, most of these problems are identified early and solutions offered. In older children, repeated infections can lead to scars in the kidney and long term problems unless treated. “In very severe cases like exstrophy (Bladder exstrophy is a congenital (present at birth) abnormality of the bladder. It happens when the skin over the lower abdominal wall (bottom part of the tummy) does not form properly, so the bladder is open and exposed on the outside of the abdomen), the bladder itself is open and we have successfully treated children with these complex problems both for Indian and overseas patients . Our pediatric orthopedic team helps us in this complex approach,” he added.
As more and more imaging is available during pregnancy, a lot of abnormalities are picked up during antenatal scans. Though it looks like the number of urological cases is increasing, most of the problems seen during the pregnancy scan can be managed without worry and by expert waiting with checks. But the ones which need to be corrected can be identified early and the results are very satisfying in majority of the babies.
One of the commonest problems among kids are the hydronephrotic kidneys (water filled enlarged kidneys) either due to a block in the pipes or reflux (back flow) into the kidneys; coming to the bladder and urethra (pipe bringing urine out of the body). Many boys nowadays suffer from structural problems in the penis which need to be corrected in expert hands early in life so that they can get on with life. One of these is hypospadias where the urine opening is below the normal location and is increasing worldwide. While it used to be seen in 1:4000 babies previously, in the last few decades it’s increased phenomenally all over the world to almost 1:800 in some parts. Same way, the number of children testicular problems also is in the rise. If corrected early and these babies can get on very well.
Speaking on the occasion, RCH’s Vice-President and Cluster Head, Neeraj Lal said, “Pediatric urology is a very challenging yet a very gratifying specialty. The problems can be identified by a systematic logarithmic method and the treatment provided in expert hands makes the babies recover fast and get back to a normal / near normal life. We have successfully treated more than 500 patients with kidney diseases which give us the reason to formally launch this clinic.”
