A multidisciplinary spina bifida clinic and family support group is offered to myelomeningocele patients needing long-term follow up. Complicated medical conditions utilize special skills of the program's treatment professionals in genitourinary reconstructive surgery, including bladder exstrophy and intersex operations. Many of these surgeries require coordinated involvement of two or more pediatric specialties. The program has developed numerous innovations in surgical procedures including cystoplasty, pyeloplasty, uretral implantation, and hypospadias. Research Program research efforts are targeted at consolidating and improving diagnostic and treatment options.
Current research involves the use of computer-assisted imaging in urodynamics.
Indications for Patient Referral Children exhibiting symptoms that indicate simple, complex, or disease-specific genitourinary problems are candidates for treatment in the UCLA Pediatric Urology Program. Common conditions are hydronephrosis, hypospadias, neurogenic bladder, and myelomeningocele. In the 1960s, early pioneering efforts of the founder of UCLA Urology, Dr. Willard E. Goodwin, resulted in the first renal transplants in the Western United States. Today, the field of renal transplantation is characterized by a close working relationship with nephrology. From its first director, Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal , to his successor, Dr. H. Albin Gritsch , the Renal Transplant Program been highly successful, achieving one of the lowest organ rejection rates in the country.