Conditions We Treat

At Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, we provide expert and innovative care for your baby with highly complex congenital (present at birth) or acquired (after birth) kidney disease. These kidney diseases lead to a baby retaining too much fluid, poor growth, and the need for dialysis (treatment to filter blood) immediately after birth, and, in some cases, a kidney transplant in the future.

Conditions we treat before and after birth include the following:

Congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) - This is a group of rare birth malformations of the kidneys or other parts of the urinary tract. Anomalies that fall under CAKUT include:

• Congenital renal agenesis/congenital bilateral renal agenesis (CoBRA) - When one or both of your baby’s kidneys never develop.
• Renal dysplasia - When your baby’s kidneys do not form or grow correctly.
• Renal hypoplasia - When your baby’s kidneys are too small and don’t work correctly.
• Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) - These types of cystic kidney disease are rare and genetic (inherited). It means that both of your baby’s kidneys are covered in cysts and have become dangerously enlarged.
• Misplaced kidneys or horseshoe kidneys - When kidneys grow in the wrong place or are joined into one, arched kidney.
• Fetal lower urinary tract obstruction (LUTO) - A blockage in your fetus’s urinary tract causing the bladder, ureters, and kidneys to swell.
• Posterior urethral valves - When a valve in your baby’s urethra (tube that drains urine from the bladder) becomes blocked.
• Ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJ) - When a blockage occurs between your baby’s ureter (tubes from the kidneys to the bladder) and kidney that stops urine flow to the bladder.
• Ureterovesical junction (UVJ) obstruction - When a blockage occurs where your baby’s ureter meets the bladder.
• Hyperammonemia and other congenital metabolism disorders that require dialysis - Congenital metabolism disorders, also known as inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), are inherited disorders that are rare and are caused by a missing or defective enzyme in the body.

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) - When urine in your baby’s bladder flows in the wrong direction. It goes up into the ureter (tubes from the kidneys to the bladder) rather than down.

Congenital nephrotic syndrome - A condition where too much protein is released in your baby’s urine and leads to life-threatening complications.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) - We treat babies of all sizes with acute kidney injury, a type of kidney failure that happens after birth, usually due to your child becoming critically ill. The management of AKI requires the input and expertise of experienced neonatologists and pediatric kidney doctors.