Spina Bifida Program

The Spina Bifida Program is a multidisciplinary program that includes pediatric experts in neurosurgery, orthopedics, developmental pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation and urology. When your child is born, our multidisciplinary team will evaluate him or her in the neonatal intensive care unit at Riley at IU Health.

How often your child will require follow-up care depends on his or her individual condition. Some children require care from our entire team while others only need care from some members of the program. We also provide nutritional care, social services and physical therapy if needed.

In some cases, we are able to perform prenatal evaluations that allow us to perform surgery to correct the malformations of spina bifida while your baby is still in the womb. The ability to repair spina bifida defects before birth can strongly decrease the effects of the condition.

The doctors and surgeons with the Spina Bifida Program also provide the same multidisciplinary care for patients as they transition into adulthood. This allows your child to see the doctors he or she needs to see by self-referral and by physician referrals.

The Spina Bifida Program is one of the largest in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recognized it as a Center of Excellence, and the program participates in the CDC’s National Spina Bifida Patient Registry. In addition, the pediatric neurosurgeons on the spina bifida team are highly skilled and highly trained.

All received extra training in order to become specialized in pediatric neurosurgery. This is just one reason why the Neurology and Neurosurgery departments at Riley at IU Health are ranked annually on the U.S. News & World Report list of best children’s hospitals.