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.
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:
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
The disease caused by the Zika virus is contracted by a bite from an infected mosquito, as in the case of dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. It can also be spread through sexual intercourse, pregnant women may transmit it to their children, or through blood transfusions. In Europe there are no cases of infection by mosquito; all cases have been imported.
It is disease lasting a short time that can be overcome without complications or the need for admission to hospital. However, there is a relationship between this infection and some neurological disorders. In addition, pregnant women who are infected may give birth to babies with microcephaly.
The incubation period in humans is 3-12 days, up to 15 maximum. Although on many occasions there are no symptoms, when there are the disease is characterised by:
Since 2015, 71 countries have declared transmission of the Zika virus via mosquitoes. In addition, 13 more have stated that the disease has arrived by other means, generally through sexual contact.
In Europe, most cases have been imported from countries where it is endemic, mainly from Latin America but also from South East Asia. In Catalonia in December 2016, there were 150 registered infections, of which 32 were pregnant women.
Between the first seven to ten days of the disease, diagnosis is made using molecular biology techniques (RT-PCR) in blood and urine to detect the virus.
After this period, Zika disappears from the blood and is detected through antibodies in the serum.
There is no specific treatment for this disease. Symptoms generally disappear between three and seven days after infection. They are therefore lessened with analgesics and antipyretics.
There is currently no vaccine for this virus. For this reason, prevention is based on avoiding mosquito bites in countries where it is endemic, as well as using protection during sexual intercourse.
In the case of Catalonia, the risk is associated with the arrival of travellers from countries where it is endemic. Here there is a screening programme for pregnant women and their partners; they are a sensitive group as the virus may be passed to the foetus.
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.
In addition to providing multidisciplinary care for patients of all ages who suffer this condition, the objectives of Vall d’Hebron Hospital’s Hereditary Angioedema Unit include teaching and research in this field.
The Hereditary Angioedema Unit (UAEH) of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital’s Allergology Department has been treating patients with this disorder for more than 25 years.
UAEH outpatients are treated by allergology specialists in a multidisciplinary manner in the Outpatient Clinic in the Old Nursing School and in the Children’s and Women’s Hospital, ensuring transference and continuity of care from childhood through to adulthood for this genetic, lifelong condition.
The Unit is made up of a team of specialist paediatricians, paediatric nursing staff, paediatric resident doctors working in shifts during their training, nursing assistants, paediatric nursing residents, porters, administrative and cleaning staff who share work and experiences for the sole purpose of offering the best care to the boys and girls in the Unit. We are experts in emergency care for children with complex diseases (patients with solid-organ or bone-marrow transplants, immunosuppressed patients, etc.,) in synergy with the other units in our centre. We are also part of the Paediatrics Department, offering comprehensive care to children who are poorly.
Our Paediatric Emergency Unit attends to patients up to the age of 16, except for children with chronic diseases requiring very specific treatment who may be attended to by our Unit even when they are over this age limit.
Besides making visits to assess children's emergency medical or surgical pathology, and appointments for patients who require clinical monitoring after our consultation, we also have an Observation ward for admitting patients who require hospitalisation.
The Paediatric Hospitalisation and Hospital Paediatrics Unit was recently created. It represents a considerable evolution in the care of paediatric patients admitted into the Maternity and Children's Hospital, replacing the former General Paediatrics Unit, in order to adapt to current care requirements.
This Unit plays a very important role in the overall, comprehensive care of paediatric patients. The paediatricians of this unit are responsible for the care of a large majority of acute paediatric illnesses, maintaining a close relationship with the other medical and surgical subspecialities, and aim to become leaders in treating patients who are difficult to diagnose or who have a complex pathology, as part of their care and teaching activities concerning paediatric hospitalism.
The Unit undertakes training activities that are crucial for paediatric residents and their specific areas in their first year of residency (such as obligatory rotation) and it is then especially interesting for those doctors who are about to finish their residency, as it allows them and their tutors to know how much theoretical, practical and communicative knowledge they have acquired, so that this can be complemented where necessary.
The Paediatrics Department at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital integrates several sections and units of specific paediatric areas.
We provide assistance from birth to adolescence. As an integrated center at the Vall de Hebrón University Hospital, we facilitate the transfer of child patients to adults within the same hospital.
Vall de Hebrón Children's Hospital is one of the centers with the most capacity to solve complex pediatric processes in Catalonia and Spain.
The Vall d'Hebron University Hospital's Paediatric Department includes various sections and units from specific paediatric areas (paediatric subspecialities):
The Paediatric Urology Unit is a part of the Paediatric Surgery Department, and mainly deals with kidney and urinary tract abnormalities in children and adolescents. We offer minimally invasive surgery in the treatment of kidney abnormalities and urinary tracts with a focus on the use of robotic techniques for the treatment of so-called "pyeloureteral stenosis", which is a congenital ureter malformation.
Our Unit is a pioneer in the treatment of sexual differentiation disorders at the paediatric age. We are also a renowned centre for paediatric renal transplants, and lead the way in Catalonia, especially in complex kidney transplants or transplants in combination with other organs.
The Paediatrics Teaching Unit has extensive experience in training specialists. There are a total of 60 Paediatrics residents at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, 15 per year. Over the last few years, Paediatrics at Vall d’Hebron has been the first choice for new residents, and in the 2017 exam session achieved the best results of any Spanish hospital. In addition to this, we receive residents from hospitals all over the world.
Pediatric training itineraries
Over the last few years, paediatrics at Vall d’Hebron has been residents’ first choice, and in the 2017 exam session achieved the best results of any Spanish hospital.
The Department has a Paediatrics Teaching Subcommittee, comprising twelve tutors and twenty residents overseeing the practical application of the training and its integration into healthcare activities. Thanks to the involvement of these professionals, we can ensure supervised completion of the training programme objectives.
This Teaching Unit comprises different healthcare departments and units, including the Paediatrics, Nephrology, Neonatology, Paediatric Oncology and Haematology, Intensive Care, Neurology, Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Allergies, Cardiology, Respiratory Medicine, Gastroenterology, and A&E Departments.
It is vital for residents to train in research methodology as this is necessary to take part in and develop research projects. From the second year onwards, we invite residents to carry out research work, and a minimum number of papers and publications is required in addition to their full cooperation in sessions within the Department.
Why specialise at Vall d’Hebron?
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