Monday, February 10, 2014

Dr. John P. Gearhart closes 100th Cloacal Exstrophy at Johns Hopkins

Cloacal exstrophy is one of the most severe congenital anomalies compatible with life. Fortunately, cloacal exstrophy is rare, occurring in 1 of 200,000 to 400,000 live births and can be diagnosed reliably prenatally.[1]   Historically, surgical reconstruction of cloacal exstrophy was considered futile and untreated neonates died from prematurity, short bowel syndrome, sepsis or renal and central nervous system abnormalities.  Over the past few decades, improvements in surgical technique and anesthesia have improved the outcomes of children born with cloacal exstrophy so that nearly 100% of children survive into adulthood.  Modem treatment of cloacal exstrophy includes a number of goals that were previously unobtainable, namely obtaining secure abdominal and bladder closure; preserving renal function; achieving satisfactory continence; obtaining functional, cosmetically pleasing genitalia, and preventing the short bowel syndrome.[2-5]

John P. Gearhart, MD
The Brady Urological Institute and Department of Urology at Johns Hopkins Hospital has a long history of treating children with bladder- and cloacal-exstrophy.  In 1975, Robert Douglas Jeffs, FRCS, Chief of Pediatric Urology at the University of Toronto Sick Children's Hospital, came to the Johns Hopkins Children's Center as the first Professor of Pediatric Urology.  He pioneered the modern techniques of exstrophy closure with osteotomies and improved long-term renal function.  John P. Gearhart, MD, Professor and Director of Pediatric Urology trained under and succeeded Dr. Jeffs in 1996. Tremendous improvements have been made in the treatment of children with the exstrophy spectrum during the last 10 years.  These include improvements in the understanding of differences in collagen, smooth muscle, neural innervation and bony anatomy at the cellular level in children with exstrophy as well as clinical improvements involving osteotomies, pain control and immobilization and continence surgeries have increased success rates and outcomes. [6]

In the last year, Dr. Gearhart led the team that closed the 100th child with cloacal exstrophy at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.  This represents the world's largest experience with cloacal exstrophy and two lifetimes of dedication and work to this disease and the children afflicted by it.  See the video, "A Milestone in Pediatric Urology" below.




The outcomes for these 100 children were recently presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.  Sixty patients had complete follow-up at a median of 9 years (range 1-19 years); 26 patients failed their initial closure and 34 had a successful primary closure.  Children with the highest likelihood of successful primary closure had smaller diastasis of their pelvis, were closed with both osteotomies and an external fixator; and had a delay between osteotomy and abdominal closure.

For more information, please visit Division of Pediatric Urology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.



[1] Meizner, I. and Bar-Ziv, J.: In utero prenatal ultrasonic diagnosis of a rare case of cloacal exstrophy. J. Clin. Ultrasound, 13: 500, 1985. 
[2] Gearhart JP, Mathews R. Exstrophy-epispadias complex. In: Wein AJ, Kavoussi LR, Partin AW, Peters CA, Novick AC, editors. Campbell-Walsh Urology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier; 2012. p. 3497-553.
[3] Gearhart, J. P. and Jeffs, R. D.: Techniques to create urinary continence in the cloacal exstrophy patient. J. Urol., part 2, 146: 616,1991. 
[4] Mathews R, Jeffs RD, Reiner WG, Docimo SG, Gearhart JP. Cloacal exstrophy--improving the quality of life: the Johns Hopkins experience. The Journal of urology. 1998 Dec;160(6 Pt 2):2452-6.
[5] Lund DP, Hendren WH. Cloacal exstrophy: a 25-year experience with 50 cases. Journal of pediatric surgery. 2001 Jan;36(1):68-75.
[6] The Exstrophy-Epispadias-Cloacal Exstrophy Spectrum: A New Appraisal. John P. Gearhart, MD (Guest Editor), Cenk S.N. Buyukunal, MD (Guest Editor).  Seminars in Pediatric Surgery, Volume 20, Issue 2, May 2011, Pages 61.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing these. It’s always useful to get pointers to the good blogs out there. You might also be interested to know more about our company - Parana Impact, which is one of the leading database marketing, data intelligence and digital marketing service provider. Chief of Pediatrics Users Email List Suitable to small scale to large scale companies which will focus on driving more revenue and increase profitability.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love dr Heather my son James neal was born with this my son will be 9 on Halloween I'm so thankful and bless...I just couldn't believe it...still more surgery to go but I leave it in their hands...thanks so much stronger gear Hart and your team...see y'all soon...riva.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great article –Impressive:We think you might be interested to know more about our company,helps you get your hands on world’sbest class customized B2B Contact List, which can make your sales andmarketingcampaignscost effective. Achieve Your Marketing Goals and Grow Your Business.Use B2B Contact Lists to get better and deeperinsights. You and your sales team get to hear true voice of your target audience,much more effectively ascomparetoothertraditional marketresearch methodologies.Chief of Pediatrics Mailing List & Email List

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wanted to say that I have loved this blog.Very informative post with lots of information included in the posting.
    You have made some really good points here ! You might also be interested to know more about generating more leads and getting the right intelligence to engage prospects.E-Health Care Lists implements new lead gen ideas and strategies for generating more leads and targeting the right leads and accounts.E-Health Care Lists is one of the global suppliers of healthcare mailing list & email list.Marketing to the healthcare industry, reaching the doctors and other healthcare decision makers is often an impossibletask.Please refer to
    Chief of Urology Mailing list & Email list

    ReplyDelete
  5. HOW DR AZIBA HELPED ME ENLARGE MY PENIS SIZE FROM 3.5 INCHES TO 11INCHES LONG AND 8.0 GROWTH
    I got married 2 years ago and it just seemed that there was no excitement in my sex life. My dysfunction to perform to the best of my abilities in bed made it harder for my wife and me to have a good time during sex. And i was having the feelings that she may decide to get a divorce one day. I knew something had to be done in order to improve my sex life and to save my marriage because my marriage was already falling apart, so when i was on my Facebook page i came across a story of how Dr Aziba helped him enlarged his penis to 8ins better.so i Immediately copied the Email address of the Dr and explained to him my problem,he gave me some simply instruction which i must follow and i did easily and my friends Today, i am the happiest man on Earth, All Thanks to Dr Aziba for saving my marriage and making me a real man today.i asked him about some popular diseases like HERPES,HIV AIDS,HEPATITIS, DIABETICS, CANCERS, WART, Get Ex back ,etc....... which are affecting most people he said there is no disease without a cure , he has it all...You can as well reach the Dr below for help on your problem, for he has the solution to all...
    Email:[ PRIESTAZIBASOLUTIONCENTER@GMAIL COM ]
    WhatsAPP DR [ +2348100368288 ]






    HOW DR AZIBA HELPED ME ENLARGE MY PENIS SIZE FROM 3.5 INCHES TO 11INCHES LONG AND 8.0 GROWTH
    I got married 2 years ago and it just seemed that there was no excitement in my sex life. My dysfunction to perform to the best of my abilities in bed made it harder for my wife and me to have a good time during sex. And i was having the feelings that she may decide to get a divorce one day. I knew something had to be done in order to improve my sex life and to save my marriage because my marriage was already falling apart, so when i was on my Facebook page i came across a story of how Dr Aziba helped him enlarged his penis to 8ins better.so i Immediately copied the Email address of the Dr and explained to him my problem,he gave me some simply instruction which i must follow and i did easily and my friends Today, i am the happiest man on Earth, All Thanks to Dr Aziba for saving my marriage and making me a real man today.i asked him about some popular diseases like HERPES,HIV AIDS,HEPATITIS, DIABETICS, CANCERS, WART, Get Ex back ,etc....... which are affecting most people he said there is no disease without a cure , he has it all...You can as well reach the Dr below for help on your problem, for he has the solution to all...
    Email:[ PRIESTAZIBASOLUTIONCENTER@GMAIL COM ]
    WhatsAPP DR [ +2348100368288 ]

    ReplyDelete
  6. I always advocate men take enlarged prostate seriously. I learnt the hard way, but I am glad herbal medicine came through for me. Years ago, I observed some urinary issues. It started with frequent urge to urinate, delay in initiating urination, and moved to a slow urinary flow. Initially I did not take it seriously. I was 66 years and didn’t know BPH would come that early. Other symptoms followed and it became a concern. What I hated was getting up at night to urinate. These continued till I did a scan which revealed my prostate was enlarged to 70grams. It was scary! I took medications as treatment for years with no cure, coupled with side effects I had. It became depressing, and affected my sexual life. In order to get help, I spent time and searched for a natural cure. I listened to YouTube videos on BPH and read blogs to find a way out. About 2 years ago, I stumbled on a cure story of enlarged prostate shared on a blog, I followed the link shared, and got to read about Dr. Mohan natural medicine. That was the beginning of my freedom! I finished my treatment with Dr. Mohan herbal medicine in the shortest period of time. Scan after treatment revealed  normalized prostate size with all symptoms gone! I wish I had met Dr. Mohan early I would not have experienced pain and discomfort for 8 years. Dr. Mohan Herbal medicine gave me the freedom which allopathic medications could not for many years. Read about Dr. Mohan herbal medicine and get in touch at http://naturalcureforenlargeprostate.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was diagnosed as HEPATITIS B carrier in 2013 with fibrosis of the
    liver already present. I started on antiviral medications which
    reduced the viral load initially. After a couple of years the virus
    became resistant. I started on HEPATITIS B Herbal treatment from
    ULTIMATE LIFE CLINIC (www.ultimatelifeclinic.com) in March, 2020. Their
    treatment totally reversed the virus. I did another blood test after
    the 6 months long treatment and tested negative to the virus. Amazing
    treatment! This treatment is a breakthrough for all HBV carriers.

    ReplyDelete