Neonatal Surgery - UCLA Fetal Care Center

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UCLA Health pediatric surgeons specialize in delivering outstanding surgical care to every child. Call 310-206-2429 to connect with an expert.

Neonatal Surgery - UCLA Fetal Care Center

UCLA pediatric surgeons have extensive experience treating a variety of gastrointestinal and thoracic congenital anomalies that may occur in newborns. Through our well-established UCLA Fetal Care Center, we serve as integral members of a multidisciplinary team of pediatric and maternal-fetal specialists that counsel future parents and coordinate the care of babies known to have congenital anomalies. Prenatal counseling for such conditions is readily available and is performed in coordination with neonatologists and pediatric specialists and includes a tour of the state-of-the-art Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during the prenatal visit. Our nurse practitioner, Lisa Iamiceli, PNP, can coordinate care for you and your child at 310-206-2429.

baby hand holding on to thumb

The High Risk Obstetrical Unit and NICU provide excellent care to pregnant women and their newborn babies delivered or transferred to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Labor & delivery and the post partum units are in immediate proximity to the NICU so that mother and child can be remain close following delivery. In addition, the NICU serves as a regional referral and transfer center with a dedicated and highly-trained neonatal transport team for critically-ill newborns that are born at other hospitals and require specialized surgical care at UCLA.

The pediatric surgeons at the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital have extensive experience in providing specialized surgical care to neonates. Common problems diagnosed and treated include:

  • Anorectal malformations (imperforate anus, perineal fistula, recto-urethral fistula, cloaca)
  • Biliary atresia
  • Choledochal cyst
  • Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM) and pulmonary sequestration
  • Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
  • Congenital intestinal atresia (duodenal atresia, jejunal-ileal atresia, colonic atresia)
  • Conjoined twins
  • Esophageal atresia and/or tracheoesophageal fistula
  • Hirschsprung's disease
  • Intestinal obstruction or pseudo-obstruction
  • Malrotation
  • Meconium ileus
  • Meconium peritonitis and pseudocyst
  • Midgut volvulus
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis
  • Omphalocele
  • Patent ductus arteriosus

ECMO

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a biomedical device similar to a cardiopulmonary bypass or assist machine that is used during open-heart surgery. This technology provides life support for select newborn and pediatric patients suffering from overwhelming but reversible respiratory or cardiac failure. In the case of newborns, ECMO therapy can be thought of as returning the baby to the life support of a mother's placenta and allowing a more gradual transition to breathing air.

The ECMO program at UCLA has been operational since 1998 and has successfully treated newborns and pediatric patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, meconium aspiration, pulmonary hypertension, and severe pneumonia. The ability to provide ECMO support is only available at a handful of neonatal centers, and UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital is one of only a few ECMO centers that have also received the ECMO Award of Excellence by the Extracoporeal Life Support Organization.

Contact Us

(310) 206-2429 Appointments
(310) 825-4640 Fax