Pneumology

In addition to a general pneumology consultation, the H.U.B. Interhospital Department of Pneumonia is structured into 7 clinics and centres of expertise:    

• The Cystic Fibrosis and Lung Transplant Reference Centre, together with  thoracic surgery, provides long-term follow-up  for persons with cystic fibrosis and/or who can benefit or have benefitted from a lung transplant.   
• The Asthma and Allergology Clinic is concerned with all forms of asthma, including the most severe, which are treated with biotherapies.  
• The Interstitial Pulmonary Diseases Clinic is one of 3 Belgian reference centres for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibroses.   
• The Thoracic Endoscopy Reference Centre (see Focus) 
• The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Rehabilitation Centre provides a full range of available treatment, including endoscopic or surgical treatment (pulmonary volume reduction or transplant) for the most severe cases.   
• The Thoracic Cancer Clinic treats lung cancer patients, in cooperation with the Jules Bordet Institute.   
• The Sleep-Related Respiratory Disorders Clinic is concerned with patients with obstructive apnea requiring recourse to a CPAP.  

The Department also has 2 technical platforms:  

• The respiratory function tests (RFT) that are carried out under the control of the physiotherapists in consultation;  
• A platform dedicated to endoscopy that the pneumologists share with the urologists and gastroenterologists. 

The H.U.B. Thoracic Endoscopy Reference Centre provides all the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the discipline and has developed an innovative approach to pulmonary nodules. Thanks to scanner images acquired upstream, the Centre uses a GPS-type endoscopic navigation technique that makes it possible to visualise and, above all, reach a lesion located deep in the bronchial branches, beyond the reach of conventional endoscopy. This permits a biopsy and thus a non-invasive diagnosis of these potentially cancerous nodules.