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.
For over thirty years, our service has been accredited by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare for training resident doctors in anaesthesia and resuscitation. All the members of our service are teachers and 12 of them are also tutors. Some members are professors at the Autonomous University’s Faculty of Medicine, for Masters and courses, as well as being part of research projects, authors of publications, etc.
Anesthesiology and resuscitation training itinerary
Our Teaching Unit attracts medical students from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, residents and specialists. Every year, it teaches over 120 resident doctors (45 of whom are the service's own residents) in the cross-cutting, specific skills of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation, and in Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) for anaesthesia, and complements the training of over 20 specialists in anaesthesia and other specialities. It also offers an advanced international training programme in Paediatric Anaesthesia.
On our Campus, you have the opportunity to attend, learn and reflect on the care performed for all kinds of pathologies. In order to facilitate integration into the service and speciality, during the first month of rotation, the resident is trained in cross-cutting skills, via the Hospital's Teaching Unit, and in the basics of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation, through a personalised training plan. In addition to assisting in various areas, sessions and compulsory courses, the individual training plan for our residents includes participation in the theory-practical modules specifically designed for each training year. These are run by experts in the specific subject skill of the module.
The efforts of our Teaching Unit are directed towards training excellent, thoughtful professionals with a critical spirit, by and for our present-day society.
Why practise this speciality at Vall d'Hebron?
The Radiodiagnosis Teaching Unit is provided by the Radiology Department (general and infant) with participation from specialists from Neurology, Gynaecology Radiology, Vascular and Interventional Radiology, Traumatology Radiology and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Radiodiagnostic training itinerary
Prospective radiologists need a solid medical foundation to work closely with specialists from other medical disciplines. For this reason, training in diagnostic imaging, clinical radiology and bioethics is complemented with knowledge on pathological and functional aspects of diseases.
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital is accredited to train six residents a year in the Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology Teaching Unit. The core Teaching Unit is provided by the Traumatology Department, with participation from Intensive Care Medicine, Vascular Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Rheumatology.
Training itinerary for Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology
Orthopaedic surgery and traumatology is a specialisation encompassing prevention, clinical assessment, diagnosis, surgical and non-surgical treatment, and monitoring - until a definitive functional state is re-established - of cognitive, traumatic, infectious, tumoural, metabolic and degenerative processes, and of acquired functional deformities and disorders of the musculoskeletal system and related structures.
Why specialise at Vall d’Hebron?
It is a chronic brain disorder that can affect people of any age. It is characterised by recurring convulsions caused by excessive electrical impulses in groups of brain cells. The consequences can be neurological, cognitive, psychological and social.
In 2005, epilepsy was defined as “a disorder of the brain characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures”. Epilepsy is therefore diagnosed when patients experience two or more seizures, separated by a period of time that can last from 24 hours to 10 years.
Epilepsy causes brief absence seizures, involuntary movements, repetitive reflexes such as sucking movements, loss of consciousness, and so on. It can originate in one area of the brain (focal seizure) or the brain as a whole (generalized seizure). Seizures are sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and/or loss of bowel control. Their frequency can vary from only just one over a ten year period to several per day.
Seizures (absence seizures, muscle contractions, etc.) are the main symptom and may vary depending where in the brain the epileptic seizure begins.
For example, in tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS), it is common to observe twitching, muscle contractions, jerking, etc. These movements are called “myoclonus” and may be symmetric or asymmetric and are accompanied by rolling of the eyes. They are followed by a spasm with clenching of the teeth, laboured breathing and an epileptic shout.
Epilepsy affects the entire population, regardless of age, from whilst still in the womb right up to people in their nineties. It is estimated that 8 in 1000 people have the condition.
Related factors:
In some cases the cause of epilepsy may be unknown, as although we can see an epileptic seizure occurring in the brain, current technologies do not reveal what causes them. Epilepsy may also be genetic.
It is the second most common neurological disorder (after stroke) seen in accident and emergency departments. An estimated 3,000 patients are seen in our centre every year. 3% of the population will attend a medical centre at some point during their lifetime to determine whether their symptoms are caused by epilepsy.
Diagnosis requires:
It is advisable to avoid all situations that may create:
When faced with a seizure, a series of recommendations should be followed to avoid injury to the person having the seizure.
It is a cancer found in the bones and soft tissue. Ewing's sarcoma is the second most common cancer in children, and normally occurs between ten and twenty years old. It is also more common in males than in females. Ewing's sarcoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumours (PNET) are cancers encompassing different types of malignant tumours that share a common chromosomic abnormality. Ewing’s tumours are made up of small undifferentiated cells and tend to be most commonly found in the long bones of the leg or arm, in the flat bones of the ribs and pelvis, or in the spine. They may also occur in any other bone or in soft tissue.
Ewing's tumours located in soft tissue are called extraskeletal Ewing’s sarcoma. They tend to be found in the thigh, pelvis, parts of the spine, the chest wall and the foot.
Primitive neuroectodermal tumours in bones and soft tissue are the least common type of Ewing’s sarcoma. They are made up of immature nerve cells.
The most common symptoms of Ewing’s sarcoma are:
There may also be a lump or swelling around the affected bone or tissue. During diagnosis it is very common to discover a pathological fracture (a non-traumatic fracture) due the fact that the tumour has weakened the bone. Weight loss and fever are other very common symptoms of this kind of tumour.
Malignant neoplasms in children and teenagers are rare, but they are one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in these age groups. Ewing’s sarcoma represents 3 % of cancers diagnosed in children throughout Spain. Every year there are around 30 new cases in children under 14 years of age.
If a child shows symptoms of this sarcoma, the doctor will carry out several diagnostic tests which may include:
These tests will help to determine the size and location of the tumour and whether it has spread to other parts of the body.
Three kinds of treatment are often used to treat Ewing’s tumours. Chemotherapy is always used. In addition, surgery (whether to save or amputate the limb) and radiotherapy are used for local control of the tumour. The type of treatment depends on the child's age, the location of the tumour and whether it has spread to other parts of the body.
There are currently no measures to prevent this kind of tumour.
Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) encompasses a range of genetic diseases characterised by excessive fragility of the skin and mucous membranes when subjected to minimal trauma. The disease appears at birth or during the first few years of life, and lasts a lifetime. Prognosis is variable, but tends to be serious. Life expectancy is 50 years, and the disease brings with it complications related to infections, nutrition and neoplastic complications. There is currently no effective treatment available.
Depending on the area of skin where blistering occurs, the disease can be divided into four main groups, and subsequently 32 subgroups.
The most common cutaneous symptoms are blisters in the areas of greatest friction such as on the hands and feet. They are skin lesions that bleed and may form scabs that are easily infected and that itch constantly. Scratching contributes to new lesions and secondary infections of already affected areas.
Once blisters have healed, millium cysts appear, atrophic or hypertrophic scars that produce webbed hands and feet, joint contractures, as well as aesthetic and functionally limiting deformities in the hands or that affect walking. All this leads to loss of independence.
In addition, the chronic wounds may produce highly aggressive skin carcinoma.
Aside from this, extracutaneous manifestations may result, such as involvement of the skin annexes, teeth and the gastrointestinal systems, the urinary tract and the respiratory epithelium.
The disease has a low prevalence rate and affects one in every 17,000 live births worldwide.
The main method of diagnosis is mapping using immunofluorescence and electron microscopy techniques. In addition, genetic diagnosis is mandatory for these patients as the disease may have different evolutions and prognoses.
Although it is being researched, at the moment there is no cure for this disease, but preventative and symptomatic treatment of skin lesions can be carried out, as well as treatment for systemic complications. When the disease appears it is vital to act quickly as patients’ life expectancy and quality of life depends on it.
Currently, new cellular and molecular therapies are being researched to combat the disease.
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