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.
Intensive Care Medicine, General Hospital
Paediatric Intensive Care, Children's Hospital and Woman's Hospital
Ampullary epidermolysis is a group of genetic disorders that may present themselves in various ways, from milder forms to more severe ones: affecting the skin and mucous membranes, involving the formation of blisters and vesicles after the slightest trauma. They can also affect other organs, in different ways.
The best thing is if the patients, their families and their caregivers receive comprehensive health education, especially when they are first diagnosed, during the baby’s first few days, when skin lesions can already begin to occur.
The education aimed at preventing the evolution and complications of the disease will be given by professionals from the following disciplines:
Skin affected by ampullary epidermolysis is very sensitive to the slightest pressure or friction, which then causes a blister to form. To avoid damage, bear in mind the following recommendations:
Bronchiolitis is an infection that causes the small respiratory passages in the lungs (bronchioles) to become inflamed and mucus to build up in them. This blocks the flow of air, making it difficult to breathe.
It happens more often in babies because their airways are smaller and more easily blocked than in older children.
Bronchiolitis is not the same as bronchitis, which is an infection in the larger and more central airways that typically causes problems in adults.
Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infection in babies and small children and it is one of the viruses that causes fever in children.
When it infects the lungs and airways, it is often responsible for bronchiolitis and lung disease or pneumonia in children less than one year old. In fact, the highest incidence of HRSV occurs in babies from two to eight months old.
It occurs more often between the months of October and March.
Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is also the most common cause of hospital admission in babies under one.
Bronchiolitis often begins with the same signs as catarrh. Infection can stay in the nose or extend to the ears and lower respiratory tracts.
Babies and small children affected by HRSV may show signs of:
Treatment for bronchiolitis due to HRSV basically consists of alleviating the symptoms. Antibiotics, which treat bacteria, are useless because, as we mentioned above, it is caused by a virus.
It is therefore advisable to:
Severe cases are treated in the hospital to give humidified oxygen and medication to help the child breathe more easily. In total, the condition usually lasts between one week and ten days, although a residual cough may persist for weeks. Bear in mind that the virus does not give the child immunity; they can become infected twice in the same season and reinfected in subsequent years.
Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is very contagious. It is spread if you come into direct contact with the nasal and throat secretions of someone who has the disease. This can happen when another child or adult coughs or sneezes nearby and the tiny droplets are inhaled by the baby. Also through hands or objects that have come into contact with infected people and then come into contact with the baby.
The virus can live for half an hour or more on your hands. It can also live for up to five hours on clothing, tissues, toys or furniture.
Infection can be prevented using several measures:
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.
In treating diphtheria, time is key. For this reason, it is important that it be administered within the first 48 hours after the symptoms appear, without waiting for confirmation of the diagnosis, which must be done in the laboratory.
The treatment uses diphtheria antitoxin and antibiotic treatment using penicillin G procaine.
A heart transplant is when a new heart is implanted. When the organs to be transplanted are the heart and the lungs, this is known as a “cardiopulmonary” transplant. This procedure is necessary when the patient suffers from a heart failure that limits their daily activity and all other treatment options have been exhausted.
The purpose of the transplant is to implant a heart from another person (usually from a donor in a state of brain death) to take over the functions of the heart of the sick person. Sometimes, heart disease causes lung problems or vice versa: pulmonary disease can cause heart disease. In these cases, the heart and the lungs must be transplanted, which is called a "cardiopulmonary transplant". Depending on the type of illness, one or both organs will be transplanted, whatever offers the maximum benefit at the lowest risk.
Before the intervention, a team of professionals must study the patient following a clinical and surgical protocol in order to guarantee success.
The operation is performed under general anaesthesia. During the process of heart transplant, the sick heart is removed and in its place a new one is implanted. Sometimes, it is also necessary to transplant the lungs.
In order to perform these operations, a multidisciplinary team of highly specialised and experienced professionals is required, as well as advanced technology and appropriate facilities.
Post-operative care is handled by the Intensive Care Unit, where intensive doctors, cardiac surgeons, cardiologists and pulmonologists take care of the patient until they are stable, when they are then moved on to a conventional hospital ward.
During this process, the doctor indicates personalised immunosuppressive therapy programme and infection prevention to be followed by the patient, along with any appropriate modifications that might be needed during the post-operative period.
At the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, we provide life support treatment. We treat patients who, when an organ fails, require specific treatment to replace that organ’s function. We are a leading reference ICU for congenital heart disease, solid organ transplants, neurocritical patients, burns and spinal cord injuries.
Our mission as a paediatric ICU is to take care of children's health, through effective, efficient and quality health care in the treatment of diseases.
More specifically, our objectives are:
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