Pulmonology & Sleep disorders

Pediatric Pulmonology as a sub-speciality was started in 1992 in the department, in view of rising incidence of respiratory disorders in children.

Facilities available

• Flexible bronchoscopy – This was the first unit to start flexible bronchoscopy in preterm and term newborns, infants and older children in northern region in 1993 and approximately 10,000 bronchoscopies have been done safely since then. In this technique, airways are visualized under real time as part of either diagnostic purposes as in congenital airway anomalies, noisy breathing, suspected foreign body inhalation, aspiration of respiratory secretions and endobronchial biopsies or for therapeutic purposes like removal of foreign bodies and mucus secretion, opening of collapsed lung segments and bronchoalveolar lavage as in lipoid pneumonia. This day care procedure is done in a designated suite with minimal sedation and local anesthesia. The smallest bronchoscope (2.2 mm outer diameter) is also available.
• Endobronchial ultrasound - It is a bronchoscopic technique that uses ultrasound to visualize structures within and adjacent to airway wall. Currently this diagnostic modality is available for children above 8 years of age. Ours is the only centre which provides this facility in pediatric age group. This real time technique facilitates the sampling from mediastinal lymph nodes safely and samples can be sent for cytopathological and microbiological studies.
• Pediatric chest clinic – A large number of toddlers and school going children suffer from various types of respiratory allergic disorders including “difficult to control asthma”. These patients are diagnosed and regularly followed up in a special chest clinic with proper record maintenance. Various monitoring devices like spirometer, peak expiratory flow meter, measures to ensure patient compliance and parental education material are provided in family friendly manner by eminent pediatric pulmonologists. Other common diseases like recurrent chest infections and pulmonary tuberculosis are also dealt with effectively. Excellent diagnostic facilities like CT (computed tomographic) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan with 3-D reconstruction of airway and lung anatomy, ventilation perfusion scan, sweat chloride test, genetic studies and flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy are available for less common diseases like cystic fibrosis,  bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease and congenital airway and lung anomalies.
• Sleep studies – Children with sleep disorders are diagnosed in the specified lab and managed accordingly.

Pediatric Pulmonology and flexible bronchoscopy

This division of pediatric subspecialty was started in 1995 by trained pediatric pulmonologists for the first time in India. The patients are referred from Delhi and surrounding states. A wide spectrum of cases with airways and pulmonary diseases are seen and followed up on regular basis. Childhood asthma in varying forms and severity constitute the major proportion of cases. These patients are followed up clinically and with spirometry on regular basis in a special clinic with proper record maintenance. Other less common diseases like cystic fibrosis, multi drug resistant tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease are diagnosed with the help of excellent diagnostic facilities like CT, MRI scan, ventilation- perfusion scan, sweat chloride test and flexible bronchoscopy.

This was the first unit to start flexible bronchoscopy in preterm, term infants and older children in the Northern region in 1993 and over 9000 bronchoscopies have been done safely since then.

Special Services

• Pediatric & Neonatal Bronchoscopy
• Pediatric Lung Function Testing
• Pediatric Sleep Studies
• Sweat Chloride
• Studies for Gastro-Esophageal Reflux
• Studies for Evaluation of Aspiration
• Pleural Biopsy
• Pediatric Home Ventilation Program