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 Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital responds to all pathologies in the musculoskeletal system and processes that lead to disability, especially highly complex processes, such as spinal cord injury and severe burns.
How to get there
The aim of the Hospital of Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns is to achieve the highest level of independence, functional capacity and quality of life for patients. To achieve this, the medical centre offers specialised surgical and rehabilitation care. In addition, our medical team is made up of specialists in orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery, rehabilitation, neurosurgery, anaesthesiology and intensive medicine, as well as nursing teams and healthcare technicians specialised in caring for these patients.
Complex processes such as spinal cord injuries, multiple traumas, craniocephalic trauma and spina bifida are treated with a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach. The work carried out in this field of knowledge puts the hospital at the top of spinal cord injury and trauma in Catalonia.
The Vall d’Hebron Burns Unit has extensive experience in treating severe burns. It also supports the care of burns patients in other centres. The telemedicine project particularly stands out in this area, assessing and monitoring burns patients remotely. The Unit’s daily work in the care and treatment of severe burns patients has made it a leading CSUR (Centres, Services and Units of Reference) in Spain and Andorra.
The Trauma Center is a pioneering facility that provides immediate care to severe and emergency polytrauma patients. Covering 814 m² on floor -1 of the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital, the centre is fully equipped to treat all degrees of polytrauma. Its facilities include a polytrauma room to stabilise patients, with the capacity to simultaneously treat two severe cases, and an adjacent CT scanner, available 24 hours a day, to help rapidly establish the appropriate treatment strategy. It also has two operating theatres, one of which is hybrid and fitted with angiography technology to perform embolisations and control post-traumatic haemorrhages without the need for intra-hospital transfers. This care model puts the patients at its centre, while professionals from various specialities move around them to offer efficient, coordinated care.
The creation of the Trauma Center completes a process started in 2021, with the installation of a heliport on the roof of the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. The heliport is just two minutes from the Emergency Department, significantly reducing patient transfer times and thus improving their prognosis. Providing care to an average of 300 severe emergency polytrauma patients a year, Vall d’Hebron has become a leading centre in the approach to these pathologies, offering a rapid, specialised response that minimises avoidable mortality and associated sequelae.
The Paediatric Neurology Department at the Hospital Vall d’Hebron is specialised in the genetic diagnosis of childhood neurological diseases. It participates in different national and European reference networks (like the URDCat Project, Solve-RD, and the European Reference Network for Rare Neurological Diseases), which centralises a large number of paediatric patients with hereditary dystonia. The genetic studies are carried out in the Paediatric Neurology Laboratory as part of several different research studies, which are funded by national and international entities as well as associations of families affected by dystonia.
Patients who are likely to suffer from dystonia undergo different metabolic, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging tests in order to classify what kind of dystonia they have, before carrying out genetic studies. Next, DNA sequencing studies are performed to establish the genetic origin of the dystonia.
To determine the origin of the patient’s dystonia, which is essential for deciding on a correct course of treatment.
There are many different genetic origins of dystonia. Therefore, diagnosing it requires both conventional and newly developed DNA sequencing techniques.
For patients with myoclonus-dystonia, first, Sanger sequencing is done for the epsilon-sarcoglycan gene, which is responsible for 70% of myoclonus-dystonia cases in children.
For patients with other kinds of dystonia, whole-exome sequencing (on the parents and the patient) or sequencing for the index case (the patient) is done first, depending on the DNA samples available.
There are no risks for the patient.
Do not let children in the kitchen while you are cooking.
Some of the utensils most associated with domestic accidents:
Electricity, plug sockets, electrical extension lead, clothes iron by contact or steam.
If blisters appear, there is loss of skin, or white or pearly blotches after cooling, you must keep the affected area covered with gauze, a towel, a sheet, etc.
If there is pain, cold water can be applied to this cover.
If the injuries only cover a small area, you should first go to a health centre. For more widespread injuries, go to the hospital accident and emergency department or 112 emergency services.
If the burn is on the face, neck, hands, major joints, groin or perineum (the area between the genitals and the anus), it should be assessed by a specialist.
Special care should be taken with children and the elderly as they may require special attention to their injuries.
Educating patients with resistant osteoarticular infections is key to avoiding contamination of utensils and possible complications resulting from the infection. Healthcare professionals will therefore emphasise the importance of hygiene in the infected area and will give instructions on dressing the area (if required) and on taking medication correctly for the duration prescribed.
When the patient is discharged, nursing staff will give them all the support and information they need to be able to look after the wound themselves. Most patients will be fitted with an external fixator that needs daily care, so healthcare staff will emphasise the importance of hygiene in the affected area, which should be cleaned daily and the correct dressing applied.
If patients are not independent and do not have a relative or carer to look after them, the local health authority will be contacted (through the PREALT discharge preparation unit), so that they may be provided with nursing care. If patients are being treated with intravenous medication, the Hospital at Home Unit will be contacted to follow up and provide the relevant treatment.
It is also necessary to explain the importance of taking the medication prescribed. On being discharged, most patients will receive long-term oral antibiotics (prescribed by the Infectious Diseases Unit) and they are reminded of the importance of maintaining a fixed schedule and not forgetting to take their medication.
They are also reminded of the need to maintain healthy habits, such as:
In general, patients with sarcoma and other musculoskeletal tumours are very vulnerable and receive very long treatment. For this reason, health education is essential, for patients, their families or the main carer, and also on discharge. Hygiene, physical position, medication, pain and emotional support will all be included.
It is important to follow a series of advice related to lifestyle and treatment. The most important advice is:
The complications of diabetes mellitus with high blood sugar and/or poor metabolic control may end up causing injuries to small vessels, such as diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy, or large vessels, such as diabetic arteriopathy.
This affectation also extends to protective sensitivity to injuries, and causes signs of peripheral nerve damage. It may present as sensory, motor or autonomic nerve damage.
The most frequent form is sensory/motor and one of the serious complications is Charcot foot and ankle. The combination of nerve and artery damage with foot infection may be considered a serious complication.
Although it may start more severely, the main symptoms of diabetes are:
And the symptoms that may indicate the beginning of diabetic foot are:
Around 15% of patients diagnosed with diabetes get diabetic foot. Between 40% and 50% of diabetics will have an ulcer and 20% will need an amputation. More than 50% of non-traumatic leg amputations are performed in diabetics.
Clinical, analytical and screen for early detection.
Depending on symptoms and preventive.
Prevention of diabetic foot includes good metabolic control alongside a healthy lifestyle and professional foot care
The specific health education on mobilisation in patients who have received traumatic surgery is essential in order to start rehabilitation as soon as possible and thus avoid possible complications as a result of the operation. This health education, focused on pelvic osteotomy, should be given before and after surgery.
In the months running up to the operation patients are advised to follow an iron-rich diet. In addition, three doses of intravenous iron will be administered and, in some cases, a dose of erythropoietin glycoprotein to stimulate the production of red blood cells.
So that patients are able to be independent, they will be taught to walk with no pressure (without putting weight on the operated leg) and with partial pressure (only putting weight on the tips of their toes) using crutches so that they can walk on their own.
After the operation, patients will have their blood pressure, heart rate and temperature monitored, and they will have a finger prick done to check for anaemia.
Where possible, younger patients will not be given blood transfusions. By correctly tolerating low haemoglobin levels, this patient group is able to more easily trigger the body’s physiological mechanisms without complications to try to compensate for the blood lost during surgery. For this reason it is very important to rigorously monitor vital signs.
Once in the hospital, the person and their family should be informed about the exercises to be performed:
Nursing staff and physiotherapists can teach the patient how to carry out deep breathing exercises, which:
Patients will move about and walk in the following three stages, depending on x-ray exams:
Pain will be controlled using intravenous drugs for the first few days and, after that, oral medication. In order to alleviate pain, a cold compress will need to be applied on the area for twenty minutes three times a day.
To prevent thromboembolism, patients will be treated with subcutaneous heparin injections. The hospital admissions unit’s nursing staff will show them how to administer this.
Health education for paediatric patients with hip dysplasia.
Proper control of risk factors, coupled with recommendations for lifestyle changes, can prevent up to 90% of stroke cases. These elements, together with the pharmacological treatments prescribed by the specialist, can also reduce the risk of recurrence and first episodes of other cardiovascular diseases with common risk factors.
These measures also benefit other aspects of health if followed in your daily life.
Multiple sclerosis is a progressive disease of the central nervous system, disabling, chronic and with a high degree of complexity and heterogeneity. Specialised multidisciplinary care is therefore required during diagnosis, follow-up and treatment.
Current evidence is insufficient to give advice on preventing multiple sclerosis. It is, however, advised that your have a healthy lifestyle and carry out activities as normal. Multiple sclerosis affects women more than men, often appears in young adults and is the second biggest cause of non-traumatic disability.
When agreeing with the patient to start them on a drug to treat symptoms or multiple sclerosis itself:
The symptoms of multiple sclerosis can vary greatly, so you are advised to consult specialists when you feel:
Although there is no scientific evidence that allows us to make concrete recommendations to prevent or change the course of the illness, there is a whole host of advice about diet, habits and physical exercise that patients and, in general, the entire population, should bear in mind:
You are also advised, should you suffer fatigue, to continue daily activity and stay active, combining moments of activity with moments of relaxation as well as to seek energy-saving strategies.
Vitamin D has an important role to play in relation to the illness, which is being researched intensively. Often, people affected present a deficiency of this vitamin, so you are advised to take a supplement under instructions and supervision by your specialist.
Multiple sclerosis is a complex and chronic illness, so it is recommended that those around the person affected are given adequate and comprehensive information. It is also a good idea to have access to ongoing advice whenever necessary.
The family or professional carer, where necessary, may need training and practical advice on topics such as diet, hygiene and the patient’s mobility.
Health education in the diagnosis, at the beginning of the treatment and for the mobilisation of the disabled patient.
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:
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