The Saint Barnabas Pediatric Nephrology and Transplantation Program, Livingston, the first complete pediatric nephrology service in New Jersey, recently changed its name to the Barnabas Health Children’s Kidney Center.

The new name was selected to better reflect the program’s services which provide technical excellence, clinical research and advocacy for families whose children suffer from kidney disease and high blood pressure which is often related to kidney problems.
“When a child’s kidneys are not working, the whole body’s physiology changes,” said Dr. Isabel Roberti, director of the Barnabas Health Children’s Kidney Center. “The digestive system doesn’t function normally, brain development and bone growth are impaired, even taste sensation is affected. The kidney performs many functions, but dialysis can only correct a few of them.”

It requires an interdisciplinary team of pediatric specialists to coordinate the care of children with renal disease, and for many of the tiniest patients, transplant is the only good option, she added.

Since 1996, the Barnabas Health Children’s Kidney Center has performed more than 130 kidney transplants — more than any other facility in the state — on patients between 10 months and 19 years of age. With nearly three quarters of their patients receiving kidneys through living donation — mostly from their parents — the center consistently exceeded national averages for both short-term and long-term graft-survival rates and acute-rejection rates.

In addition to transplantation, the center provides treatment for blood or protein in the urine, inflammatory kidney diseases, urinary tract infections, hypertension, metabolic diseases of kidney origin, kidney stones and a variety of immune-mediated conditions affecting the kidneys, including Lupus. Physicians offer experienced prenatal counseling for fetal renal anomalies and genetic diseases diagnosed intra-utero.

Dr. Roberti and the members of the Children’s Kidney Center work closely with parents and families throughout the transplant process. “It is not just medical expertise and technology that create success stories in pediatric kidney transplantation,” said Dr. Roberti. “These children survive because of the love, strength and dedication of their families.”

To learn more about the Barnabas Health Children’s Kidney Center, visit barnabashealth.org/KIDneycare or call 973-322-5264.

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