Welcome to the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine Our division provides expertise in the diagnosis and management of patients with acute and chronic diseases of the chest and allergic diseases. Diseases include COPD, asthma, sarcoidosis, cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, pulmonary thromboembolism, interstitial lung diseases, pleural disease, sleep disordered breathing, occupational lung diseases, and infectious and immunologic lung diseases, especially tuberculosis. The division is responsible for the care of patients with acute respiratory failure and other critical illnesses in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the Medical University Hospital and at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. In addition to an active consults service at the VA Medical Center and the consult and pulmonary ward service at the Medical University Hospital, the division is active in evaluating patients for lung transplantation and caring for patients transplanted at other centers. The division also cares for chronic “difficult to wean” ventilator patients in our long-term acute care unit (LTAC), Specialty Hospital of South Carolina, Charleston Memorial Hospital. Procedures and special techniques performed by the division include: (1) ventilator management, (2) fiberoptic bronchoscopy with biopsy and bronchoalveolar lavage, (3) diagnostic endobronchial ultrasound, (4) right heart catheterization, (5) thoracentesis and pleural biopsy, (6) ultrasound guided thoracentesis and small-bore catheter placement, (7) diagnostic thoracoscopy and talc poudrage, (8) chest tube placement and management, (9) pulmonary function and arterial blood gas analysis, (10) cardiopulmonary exercise testing, (11) evaluation of sleep disordered breathing, (12) pleurodesis for malignant and non-malignant effusions, and (13) laser therapy and stent placement. Experience is also provided in specialty clinics including asthma and allergy, cystic fibrosis, sarcoidosis, lung cancer, lung transplantation, sleep disordered breathing, and occupational lung diseases. The weekly conference schedule includes pulmonary and critical care case presentations with emphasis on radiological and clinical diagnosis and management, Pulmonary Grand Rounds, didactic sessions in pulmonary, critical care medicine and allergic diseases of the chest, combined pulmonary/infectious disease conference, critical care morbidity and mortality conferences, Interstitial Lung Disease conference (with Pathology and Thoracic Radiology), journal club, and research conferences. Division research is focused in the areas of lung inflammation and fibrosis, Sarcoidosis, mechanisms of pleural injury, pleural physiology and clinical pleural disease, pathogenesis of asbestos-induced pleuropulmonary disease, lung cancer, mesothelioma, pathogenesis and treatment of sleep apnea syndrome, management of cystic fibrosis, health services research, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, scleroderma, treatment of pulmonary hypertension, and evaluation of diagnostic tests. |
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