The country's first special fund for children with malformations in urinary system was established at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai on Saturday.

The fund supported by Arm Electronic Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd will be used to help disadvantaged children suffering neurological bladder, one of the major diseases in pediatric urology.

Neural tube defects in fetal period are a primary reason of the disease. Roughly the incidence of neural tube defects in children is 0.3 percent and one-third of them show symptoms of neurological bladder, which is caused by the impairment of the central nervous system that controls and coordinates urination.

Such children usually suffer dysury, incontinence, and urinary tract infection and will suffer from kidney function decline and eventually kidney failure if not treated timely.

"Unfortunately the damage of central nervous system cannot be restored so far," said Bi Yunli, director of the department of urology at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University.

Usually doctors create a continent stoma of bladder on the child's abdomen using his or her own appendix as a channel to drain urine out periodically so that the child could circumvent the difficulty of urination and be prevented from urinary tract infection caused by the impaired function of urination.

"We call it 'clean intermittent cauterization', an acknowledged best way to treat the ailment," he said. "Most children that have been treated this way can take care of themselves, go to school and participate in social activities."

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn