Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit (NICCU)

Urgent Care 24 x 7 in-house attending coverage Phone: (323) 361-2531 Section Heads Children's Hospital Los Angeles Phillipe Friedlich, MD, MSEpi, MBA LAC+USC Rangasamy Ramanathan, MD

Patients in our NICCU have direct access to wide range of pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists and ancillary services that allow treatment across the full range of neonatal diseases.  Our average daily census has been over 30 infants and we anticipate this number increasing with the additional beds available in our Anderson Pavilion.  The two neonatal intensive care teams on service in the NICCU provide complex, multidisciplinary treatment for over 400 critically ill neonates per year.

Referral Center

The most challenging neonatal disease conditions are transported to us for care from neonatal intensive care unites throughout the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, Southern California and other states such as Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, by ambulance, helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft.   Examples of the complex cases transported to us include:  

• Medical and surgical conditions associated with complications of extreme prematurity 
• Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn requiring complex cardiopulmonary management and potentially extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
• Preterm and term neonates with congenital heart disease often having multiple other congenital anomalies
• A host of general pediatric surgical and surgical subspecialty conditions affecting the newborn
• Infants with very rare diseases

Due to the complexity and critical condition of these cases, a carefully orchestrated and structured multidisciplinary approach is required and practiced under the direction of the on-service attending neonatologists.  Two board-certified attending neonatologists, 2 neonatology fellows and several residents and neonatal nurse practitioners provide care in the NICCU during daytime while an attending neonatolgist with or without a neonatology fellow, and a resident cover the unit during the night.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO, or "heart-lung bypass"), as the only remaining life-saving treatment modality, is provided for the most critically ill neonates in this NICCU.  We run one of the largest ECMO programs in California. 

Treatment of neonates with this level of complexity and disease severity can only be performed at an institution like the Children's Hospital Los Angeles where the intellectual, medical, nursing, ancillary and general institutional infrastructure and multidisciplinary representation are available to support the needs of these tiny patients with extremely complex medical and surgical conditions.  The NICCU is equipped with the latest technology and the newest treatment modalities to provide the highest level of neonatal intensive care possible.

Associations and Certifications

The Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit (NICCU) is a designated California Children's Services Regional Center and is affiliated with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

Our neonatologist attendings are board-certified, paneled California Children's Services providers. In addition to providing state-of-the art clinical care, the faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for their involvement in basic, translational and clinical research and medical student, pediatric resident and neonatal-perinatal fellow training.

Medical Team

The NICCU utilizes the around-the-clock services of an integrated team of specialists that provides comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic services ranging from noninvasive procedures to complex surgical techniques.