Precision

Childhood cancer surgery requires far more than removing a tumor. Surgeons are balancing effective cancer treatment with protecting a child's growth, organ function, fertility, and long-term quality of life. In this episode, Dr. Timothy Lautz, Director of Surgical Oncology at Lurie Children's, discusses how advances in pediatric cancer surgery are improving outcomes for children. He explains how his team uses innovative techniques, including fluorescent agents that help surgeons identify tumors during surgery, kidney-sparing procedures that preserve organ function, and collaborative, multidisciplinary care that supports children throughout treatment and survivorship.

In this episode, leaders from the multidisciplinary Spina Bifida Center at Lurie Children's discuss their innovative approaches to spina bifida care in the areas of fetal surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and urology. Learn about the latest advancements from the center, including a new orthopedic classification system that's shaping the future of spina bifida treatment.

A good night's sleep is critical to the health and well being of children, but undiagnosed or untreated obstructive sleep apnea can prevent kids from getting much needed rest and is associated with cardiovascular complications, impaired growth, learning problems, and behavioral problems. In this episode of Precision, Drs. Saied Ghadersohi and Taher Valika discuss the importance of sleep for children and the impact of obstructive sleep disordered breathing, which affects nearly 5 percent of the youth population in the United States. They offer advice to parents and share insights on advanced treatments at Lurie Children's Hospital which are helping kids get the rest they need.

Lurie Children's Department of Anesthesiology administers tens of thousands of anesthetics every year to treat children with a range of health conditions. Leading these efforts is Anesthesiologist-in-Chief Dr. Olutoyin Olutoye. In this episode, Dr. Olutoye walks through her and her team members' various roles before, during, and after an operation to ensure successful surgeries for even the tiniest babies. She also shares findings from her research in maternal-fetal anesthesiology as well as in anesthesia drugs and pediatric obesity.

Obesity affects millions of families, with about one in five U.S. children being impacted by the disease. In this episode, Lurie Children's pediatric obesity expert Justin Ryder, PhD, explains the many ways to manage childhood obesity including the use of injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists that address the biological causes of this disease, weight-loss surgery and other resources available through Lurie Children's Wellness and Weight Management Program. Dr. Ryder also advocates for Lurie Children's mission: to improve access to these resources and treatments for all patients.

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, known as DIPG, is a rare and aggressive type of pediatric cancer that forms in the brainstem, resulting in approximately 200 to 300 new cases in the United States each year. Fortunately, investigators at Lurie Children's Hospital are paving the way to breakthrough treatment for children with DIPG. In this episode, Lurie Children's physicians Dr. Ashley Plant-Fox and Dr. Michael DeCuypere discuss the progress of this first-of-its-kind, phase 1 clinical trial for DIPG that has been open since January of 2022 and offers hope for a disease that currently has no curative options.

Specialists within Lurie Children's Clubfoot Treatment Program are changing the lives of children born with clubfoot and other congenital limb deformities, through gold standard care that starts soon after birth. In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Carl and Dr. Romie Gibly, both attending physicians in the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at Lurie Children's, explain the timeline of treatment, handling of complications and the long-term outcomes of patients who undergo clubfoot care at Lurie Children's.

For children needing a new liver or kidney, the greatest hurdle is often finding a healthy organ. While the organs of deceased donors are extremely limited, living donors can offer pediatric patients a chance at life. Lurie Children's Living Donor Transplant Program is the largest in the region thanks to a partnership with Northwestern Medicine. In this episode, Dr. Juan Caicedo and Dr. Satish Nadig, who lead the program, offer insight into this decades-long collaboration that has resulted in more than 1,700 solid organ transplants since its inception and offers organ donors and recipients the best and most comprehensive care possible.