UCMG surgeons at CHLA now perform about 500 open heart surgeries every year. Hundreds of children with certain critical heart-lung conditions are treated with ECMO and go on to lead healthy lives. UCMG physician Donald Kohn, M.D. led a team that performed the world's first transfer of a healthy gene into the umbilical cord blood cells of a newborn to correct a genetic defect detected in utero . The breakthough is expected to help eradicate genetic diseases like Gaucher's disease, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, leukemia, hemophilia B, HIV infections and malignant pediatric brain tumors. The surgeons, physicians and other health care providers take a multidisciplinary approach allowing them to correct many genetic malformations and traumatic injuries of the face, eyes, ears, skin, jaws and teeth.
Treatment includes specialized therapies for hearing, speech and emotional issues.
In 1973, CHLA's Richard Fine, M.D., inaugurated the first use anywhere of hemodialysis for children with end stage renal disease and built the first device for children. Now CHLA houses one of the country's largest pediatric dialysis units. UCMG physicians at CHLA operate the most comprehensive treatment center in California for patients with spina bifida. The innovative division of Adolescent Medicine is a national prototype of integrated medical and psychological care for adolescents. UCMG physicians have developed one of the most comprehensive programs for adolescent medicine on the West Coast, addressing issues like high-risk and homeless youth, drugs, teen pregnancies, juvenile prostitution and AIDS education.