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.
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.
The lung transplant consists of replacing one or two sick lungs with healthy lungs. In general, transplants are carried out when there is a disease that involves severe and progressive chronic respiratory failure. Lung transplants started in 1981 in California. In Catalonia, this type of intervention is carried out exclusively at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, for both children and adults.
Currently, 4,000 lung transplants are carried out every year around the world, including children and adults, especially in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. In the case of Catalonia, nine lung transplants are carried out per million inhabitants, a figure that puts us at the top of the tables. Our experience ranges from month-old babies to 70-year-olds.
Normally, it is a pneumologist with a patient with chronic respiratory insufficiency who contacts the Lung Transplant Unit for both adults and children at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. From that first point of contact, the patient will be assessed by a multidisciplinary team in order to offer the best option, which might involve a transplant or simply medical treatment. It is important to remember that people who undergo lung transplants need to be strong enough to both wait for the operation and recover from it. This is a fundamental, complex requirement that must be met if the transplant is to provide benefits for the patient.
The survival rates for lung transplants are very positive. More than half of all patients are still alive after five years of the operation, and one in three patients after ten years. However, the goal of specialists is to continue researching to improve these results and prevent chronic rejection, and all the factors that lead to this complication.
Patients undergoing lung transplants must take an immunosuppressive therapy and prophylactics for an extended period of time. Most of these treatments are oral and in some cases may be inhaled.
In order to prevent complications, the medical advice given by your doctor should be followed precisely, avoid stress or over-exertion and make sure you follow the medication plan exactly. Aside from that, you can expect to lead a normal life.
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.
Chemotherapy consists of combining different types of medications that destroy cancer cells in different ways. It acts on these cells that are rapidly reproducing, cancer cells and healthy cells, too.
Chemotherapy is administered in different ways and for various reasons:
The human body is made up of different cells that each have a certain function. Cancer begins when a group of cells reproduces very quickly and uncontrollably. This affects the cells’ function and, therefore, stops the body functioning normally.
Chemotherapy acts on these cells, which may or may not be cancerous, that are rapidly reproducing. This causes side effects, which will depend on the medication, dose, duration and each individual person.
Chemotherapy can be intravenous or oral, meaning it can be administered by the vein or by the mouth. The first option is the most common.
To administer this treatment, sometimes a catheter is left in place that is then connected to a disc below the skin. The medication is administered through this device. This catheter is called a port-a-cath, although there are more types of catheters. The way the vein is accessed depends on the characteristics of the person and the duration of the treatment.
Chemotherapy is applied at intervals and the duration depends on the type of programme, control and treatment.
Chemotherapy can produce the following side effects:
Laparoscopic myomectomy is a surgical intervention used to remove uterine fibroids (or myomas), which are almost always benign tumours that appear inside the wall of the uterus.
The prevalence of uterine fibroids is high, around 30%. In most cases, they are asymptomatic and no treatment is necessary.
In those patients where fibroids do cause symptoms, these include hypermenorrhea, pain and infertility. Myomectomy is a valid treatment option.
Until recently, a laparotomy was the usual procedure. The indication of laparoscopic myomectomy as an alternative to laparotomy has been assessed in various studies. It requires seasoned surgeons with experience in the technique and expert handling of the endoscopic suture.
Laparoscopic myomectomy offers advantages over the laparotomy, such as: reduced postoperative recovery times, decreased postoperative pain and shorter hospital stays. However, it entails longer surgery and requires adequate preoperative evaluation, since the size, number and location of the fibroids can be a limiting factor when choosing a laparotomic approach.
Since June 2009, at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital we have the Da Vinci robotic system that has been important in assisting in the suture of fibroids in hard-to-reach places, or when the endometrial cavity is affected and must be repaired. In these cases, the Da Vinci system has meant we have been able to offer greater numbers of closed surgeries on our unit.
This treatment is offered by the Gynaecology Department.
The Mental Health and Gestation Unit offers high quality clinical care to women with mental health problems and addictions during pregnancy.
The Mental Health and Gestation Unit was created to accompany women with mental health problems and addictions during pregnancy and the postpartum period, in a multidisciplinary manner and from an intersectional feminist perspective that guarantees women's human rights. The Mental Health and Gestation Team is comprised of professionals from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, neonatology, obstetrics, nursing and social work.
The Unit has obstetrics and psychiatry outpatient clinics, and also sees patients admitted during pregnancy or the postpartum period.
The Social Obstetrics Unit offers clinical assistance during pregnancy to women and families at risk of social vulnerability.
The Social Obstetrics Unit was created to accompany women at risk of social vulnerability during pregnancy and the postpartum period in a multidisciplinary and coordinated manner.
The Foetal Medicine and Surgery Unit monitors pregnancies in which the future baby will require special care, such as in cases of multiple births or twins, or when the future baby has a health problem. We are specialists in intrauterine surgery, and our experience makes us a reference point in Catalonia, Spain and around the world.
In the Foetal Medicine and Surgery Unit, we use cutting edge technology to treat the future baby and the mother.
We provide personalised care for the mother, monitor her pregnancy and offer her the most appropriate treatment. We also work alongside professionals from other specialist areas, assessing the mother together and ensuring the health of the future baby before it is born.
The Prematurity Prevention Unit is responsible for assessing and attending to pregnant women who are at risk of having a premature birth.
The majority of pregnant women (9 in every 10) give birth after 37 weeks of pregnancy, which is known as a “full term birth”. 1 in every 10 women, however, have a premature birth and give birth before these 37 weeks have elapsed. If a baby is born a few weeks before it is due, its health ought not to be affected. However, if it is very premature, certain complications may arise.
The Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology Unit offers specialist care to children and adolescents, supported by professionals from other areas and units at the hospital. We deal with changes to the menstrual cycle and also advise on contraceptive methods and treat patients with various disorders.
The Unit works with Paediatric Endocrinology and Social Paediatrics, as well as other paediatric services such as Oncohaematology, Hepatology and Pneumology.
It sees cases such as:
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