We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
Minority diseases, also called rare diseases, are those that affect between 5% and 7% of the population. They are very varied, affecting different parts of the body with a wide range of symptoms that change both between diseases and within the same disease. It is estimated that some 30 million people in the EU, 3 million in Spain, and around 350,000 in Catalonia suffer from one.
The complexity of most rare diseases requires multidisciplinary care with professionals from different medical specialities, case management for nursing, psychological support and also social work.
The Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus is home to more than 100 specialist professionals dedicated to the care of more than 2,000 rare diseases. Apart from treating the most rare diseases of any centre in Spain, it is one of the leading hospitals in Europe in this field. In fact, Vall d'Hebron is part of 20 European reference networks, known as ERN. This makes this hospital a highly specialised centre for rare diseases, from birth to adulthood, through a networked system that allows sharing of resources and knowledge with other world-class hospitals.
Adult and child
Pediatric
This concentration of patients with rare diseases at Vall d'Hebron improves knowledge and promotes research. Research in this field focuses above all on improving diagnostic capacity for diseases that are often difficult to diagnose and on developing new treatments for those diseases. In the case of diseases with few patients, publicly funded research is often the main avenue for the discovery of new drugs, and public health is the framework that provides the public with access to high medication complexity.
For more information, contact the Rare Disease Team at the following email address: minoritaries@vallhebron.cat
Complex paediatric neurosurgery encompasses a series of pathologies that, due to their complexity, have to be treated in a centre with the necessary technology, professionals and expertise.
Complex paediatric neurosurgery includes:
In general, these are unusual and highly complex diseases. Many are included under the sections for rare diseases. For the best results, they should be treated in large centres that have experience of multiple cases every year and that are equipped with the technology required to treat these disorders.
Each condition has its own characteristics. In the case of a brain tumour, the child’s symptoms will depend on the area of the brain where the tumour is located.
When there are cases of decompensated hydrocephalus or severe intracranial hypertension, in other words, when there is increased pressure inside the skull, the child may have headaches, visual disturbances and may go into a coma.
Craniofacial malformations are characterised by severe deformities of the bones in the skull and face.
They tend to be rare. It is unusual to treat more than ten cases of each pathology per year.
Diagnosis of neurosurgical pathologies includes:
Assessing the results also involves psychologists or other professionals to objectively observe changes in cognitive function and quality of life.
Treatment of pathologies covered by complex paediatric neurosurgery is usually surgical. This means having an operating room equipped with advanced technology that allows intraoperative monitoring, and specialised anaesthetists and nursing staff.
Unfortunately there are no known preventative measure for these disorders. Our principal task is to restore lost function and achieve the best results so that, where possible, the child can develop normally and integrate as much as possible into family life, school and socially.
The Paediatric Maxillofacial Surgery Unit is proud of its extensive experience in the treatment of complex cranioencephaly malformations. We should also highlight the treatment of paediatric maxilofacial tumours.
Our team is made up of paediatric surgeons who are a part of the Paediatric Surgery Department, and surgeons from the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department.
The Paediatric Surgery Unit is divided into the surgical sub-specialisations of digestive surgery, neonatal and foetal surgery, maxillofacial surgery, surgical oncology, thoracic surgery and urological surgery. We are a leader in paediatric surgery in Catalonia and perform the highest number of surgical procedures in Spain. This foremost position would not be possible without the work of other hospital professionals such as anaesthetists, paediatricians, radiographers and specialists, nurses and other professionals.
Pediatric Surgery Training Itinerary
We offer residents the opportunity to master infant surgical pathology, physical examination and interpretation of clinical symptoms in patients who are often unable to express themselves or explain their medical history due to their age.
We train residents in the most common surgical techniques in the specialisation from general surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, colorectal surgery, oesophagogastric surgery, and paediatric digestive surgery. Our residents also carry out neonatal surgery, paediatric thoracic and surgical oncology, paediatric urology, paediatric maxillofacial surgery and paediatric plastic surgery.
Residents take part in duty shifts in all the subspecialisations of paediatric surgery with the support of the paediatric surgery staff and a resident medical intern. Laparoscopy is currently commonly used by different areas and units within the Digestive System Department, such as neonatal care and urology.
During the first two years of the residency, rotations are carried out in General Surgery, on the paediatric surgery ward, in Outpatient Surgery and Digestive Surgery. The remaining three years are spent in Urology, Oncology and Thoracic Surgery, Neonatal and Research, Maxillofacial and Plastic Surgery. The final year of training is dedicated to optional rotations, Transplant Surgery and a stay at a hospital abroad, with the option to repeat one of the previous rotations.
Residents are obliged to undertake duty shifts during their training period. Apart from the months during the general surgery rotation, duty shifts in Paediatric Surgery are carried out at the Maternity and Children's Hospital.
As far as research is concerned, participation in the department’s active lines of research is stimulated, as well as proposals for any research project that may or may not be related to them and which may result in a doctoral thesis.
The Vall d’Hebron Research Institute maintains different well-established lines of paediatric research, in areas such as experimental surgery, and foetal surgery in particular. In 2015 we created the Congenital Defects Surgery Cellular Therapy bioengineering group , which currently carries out research on spina bifida focusing on prenatal and perinatal aspects. In addition we undertake research on amniotic bands, gastroschisis, oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernias, diaphragmatic and labio-palatine fissure reconstruction, and research into treatments for premature birth.
In terms of clinical research, our Department has pioneered coordination of the first randomized multi-centre study on treatment of parapneumonic empyema (during which video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is compared with drainage and fibrinolytics), and which was later published in the study “Urokinase Versus VATS for Treatment of Empyema: A Randomized Multicenter Clinical Trial”. Paediatrics.
Why should I specialise at Vall d’Hebron?
Paediatric Maxillofacial Surgery, Children's Hospital and Woman's Hospital
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