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Pediatric bronchoscopies available at RRMC
Rapides Regional only hospital in Central Louisiana providing valuable service
ALEXANDRIA, La., Aug. 13, 2008 – Parents want answers – especially when their child has been coughing for months or just can’t seem to kick a particularly nasty series of chest infections.
That’s why Rapides Regional Medical Center now offers pediatric bronchoscopies.
“There are two main reasons we would perform a bronchoscopy on a child,” said Dean Edell, M.D., MPH, pediatric pulmonologist with Rapides Specialty Clinic. “One is diagnostic. We want to rule out bleeding in the lungs, the presence of a foreign body, obstructions or structural anomalies as well as to make sure the airway is sterile below the trachea.
“The other reason is therapeutic. We would go in and remove any possible mucus plus, open and expand the lungs or remove any foreign bodies.”
But until recently, parents had to travel to New Orleans with their child to have the procedure. Now, Edell has teamed up with pediatric intensivists Taj Khan, M.D., and Jose Quitain III, M.D., of Rapides Regional Medical Center, to offer pediatric bronchoscopies in Alexandria.
The procedure requires that a small tube about the size of a pencil lead be threaded through the patient’s windpipe into the lungs. A small camera at the end of the tube records every detail. But sedation is necessary.
That’s where Dr. Quitain and Dr. Khan come in. One of the pediatric intensivists is always on hand to supervise the child going under moderate sedation. The procedure is done in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rapides Women’s and Children’s Hospital and patients are taken care of by trained pediatric nurses.
The procedure only takes 3-5 minutes and the total time in the hospital is approximately two to three hours. But the information – and answers – that it provides are invaluable.
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