CLINICAL SERVICES

The Department of Pulmonary Medicine offers several routine and advanced services which include the following:

Interventional pulmonology

Flexible bronchoscopy

• Routine procedures: bronchoscopic alveolar lavage (BAL), endobronchial needle aspiration (EBNA), endobronchial biopsy (EBB), transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB)
• Electrocautery
• Argon plasma coagulation (APC)
• Laser therapy
• Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA)
• Endoscopic ultrasound (with an echobronchoscope)-guided fine-needle aspiration EUS-B-FNA
• Radial EBUS
• Virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN)
• Bronchial thermoplasty (BT)

Rigid bronchoscopy

• Airway stenting (metallic and silicone)
• Dilatation of airway stenoses
• Coring of tumors
• Cryobiopsy of the lung

Thoracoscopy

• Diagnostic thoracoscopy with pleural biopsy
• Talc insufflation for pleurodesis

Critical Care

• Mechanical ventilation with ventilators with latest technology using advanced strategies: Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA), esophageal pressure-guided mechanical ventilation
• Cardiac output monitoring by pulse contour analysis and thermodilution technique (Pulse index Continuous Cardiac Output or PiCCO)
• High-flow oxygen by nasal cannula (HFBC)
• Continuous tracheal cuff pressure monitoring
• Intermittent pneumatic compression for DVT prophylaxis
• Critical care ultrasound
• Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT)

Pulmonary function lab

• Spirometry
• Diffusion studies (DLCO)
• Body plethysmography
• Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET)
• Impulse oscillometry
• Exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO)

Sleep medicine

• Polysomnography
• Continuous/Bi-level positive airway pressure titration studies
• Multiple sleep latency test (MLST)

Lung cancer

• Chemotherapy
• Immunotherapy
• Targeted therapy
• Molecular testing (in collaboration with cytology and histopathology): EGFR, ALK, ROS1, PD-L1

Lung transplantation

• Assessment of patients with end-stage lung diseases for transplantation
• Transplantation (single lung/double lung/heart-lung)
• Post-transplant care