To protect a baby’s kidneys, it’s important to find bladder problems as early as in utero. Michael Nguyen, MD, division chief of Urology, discusses Phoenix Children’s capabilities.
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Early diagnosis is important because the bladder also relates to the function of the kidneys. And so um to help protect the kidneys, you have to make sure that the bladder works correctly. The types of bladder conditions that were diagnosed in utero include uh neurogenic bladders from say like spina bifida or bladder outlet obstruction. The referring obese should generally contact us as soon as they find out that there is something wrong with the bladder so that we can help intervene earlier. It's a very stressful time for families. So we do our best to answer as many questions as we can in their language. But once the child is born with the bladder condition, depending on their condition, usually transferred over to our, where they're seen by us, the urologist. And then oftentimes, um it's in conjunction with the neurologist as well as the pediatric surgeons with uh the consulting uh neonatologist. So once the child is treated, um we are in constant communication with the referring doctors um with every visit, um they will get a letter from us explaining what is going on and then also what the future plans are, the services that we're able to provide in the East Valley replicate a lot of what we can do here at the main hospital. The prognosis for treating these kids early in life, depends on the severity of the condition. Again, that's why it's important to try and make these diagnoses as soon as possible.
