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.
The Paediatric nursing specialist training programme uses a cross-cutting approach to competencies related to communication, care and resource management, teaching and research, and a targeted approach to advanced surgery competencies in the different areas of paediatric practice.
Training itinerary Pediatric nursing
Paediatric nursing specialists provide independent nursing care to babies, children and adolescents at all levels, as well as dealing with disease prevention and rehabilitation. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team and in collaboration with specialist nursing staff from other areas.
Why Vall d’Hebron?
Diphtheria is an acute infectious disease caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacteria and which only affects humans. It may show up as a condition of the upper respiratory tract (tonsils, pharynx and nasal mucosa). The bacteria produces an exotoxin that is responsible for the clinical symptoms of the disease. In adults, it can be fatal in 5-10% of cases, and in children this rises to 20%.
The characteristic symptom of respiratory diphtheria is a greyish white membrane (pseudomembrane) covering the tonsils and pharynx. The membrane tends to be difficult to remove and in doing so the area bleeds easily.
The most common symptoms are:
Thanks to vaccination, there have been no cases diagnosed in Spain for over thirty years. In 2015, however, there was one case in a child who had not been vaccinated.
Diphtheria is transmitted through respiration or close physical contact with an infected person or a healthy person carrying the bacteria but who has never shown symptoms.
The incubation period is two to seven days and it can be spread from seven days before symptoms appear up to two or three weeks afterwards.
Diagnosis is confirmed via microbial culture of clinical samples (swabs from the nasal mucosa, pharynx or pseudomembranes).
Diphtheria antitoxin medication and an antibiotic such as penicillin G procaine must be given as soon as possible (in the first 48 hours after showing symptoms, without waiting for the laboratory diagnosis).
Vaccination is the main measure to prevent diphtheria and is effective in 95% of cases. It must be periodically boosted as the effects of the vaccination do not last for ever.
Epidemiological monitoring and prophylaxis are essential to control the bacteria and to avoid secondary cases.
Burns occur when the body comes into contact with a source of energy that raises the temperature of the tissue. This produces tissue damage in which proteins coagulate and cause the cells to die. Even a localised injury may affect the organs and internal systems. In most cases, burns occur because our body comes into contact with a source of thermal energy, in other words, its temperature is higher than our body’s and heat transfer takes place. This is the case with flames, boiling water, hot objects and radiation from the sun. Other types of burns are caused by mechanical energy produced by friction such as dragging.
When burns are extensive and cover 15% of an adult’s body or 10% of a child or a person over 50 years old, they are called “minor burns”. When they occur, a high number of pro-inflammatory molecules are released from the burn and reach the rest of the body through circulation of the blood. During the acute stage, the permeability of the blood vessel membranes and of the body's cells is increased, which results in changes to the distribution of liquid in the body and the depression of cellular function.
To tackle the burn, a few days later the body initiates a generalised inflammatory response via a notable increase in catabolism processes in order to obtain energy resources. It also initiates a hyperdynamic response that transfers these resources to the injured areas. If the burn does not heal quickly, the inflammatory response may consume the body's resources, exhaust the patient, cause organ failure and, ultimately, death.
Once healed, however, there may be lasting functional and aesthetic consequences due to scarring or retraction. This is the case with hypertrophic and keloid scars; thickened areas of scar tissue that limit the mobility of joints, retraction of the eyelids, microstomia, and others.
Burns are graded depending on their severity and they also look different:
Burns are a common, serious and debilitating traumatic injury that mainly results from accidents in the workplace, the home or traffic accidents. The Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine estimates that three out of every thousand people a year suffer burns requiring medical attention. Primary care centres (CAPs) deal with most cases, but 15-20% will require admission to hospital.
Diagnosis is clinical and treatment must be carried out by highly specialised professionals as this is not a common pathology.
Depending on the degree of the burn, treatment may be:
Most burns are avoidable and therefore the main tools for prevention are education and legislation in society.
Chagas disease is an infection caused by the “Trypanosoma cruzi” parasite which is transmitted through the bites of an insect (the “kissing bug”). The disease can also be spread from mother to child (vertical transmission), through blood transfusion, organ donation from people infected with the disease or from eating food contaminated with the parasite. For the moment, the number of new cases has been reduced thanks to policies to eliminate the insect in countries where it is endemic, as well as thanks to screening programmes aimed at blood and organ donors and pregnant women. The future challenges to cure this disease are maintaining and increasing these measures in addition to developing new treatment evolution and response markers for patients in the chronic phase, and new drugs to treat the disease.
Chagas disease is endemic to Latin America and is a global health challenge due to migration from countries in the region. Transmission via insect is mainly found in Bolivia, which has the highest number of cases. There are also infections in north-west Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua and southern Mexico. Outside these areas it is more commonly transmitted from mother to child.
Most patients with Chagas disease do not show any symptoms, which makes it difficult to detect. The disease develops in two phases:
This disease affects six to seven million people, but 60 million are estimated to be at risk of infection. There are 11,000 cases in Catalonia.
There are currently two drugs that are used to treat Chagas disease: Benznidazole and Nifurtimox. Specific treatment is needed to address any cardiac and/or gastrointestinal complications that may arise.
Since 2011, Catalonia has implemented the “Protocol for screening and diagnosing Chagas disease in pregnant Latin American women and their babies”. This programme allows possible congenital cases to be detected, and at the same time actively screens blood and organ donations from donors.
Paediatrics, Children's Hospital and Woman's Hospital
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