Respiratory Conditions we Treat

Adenovirus Infections

Adenoviruses are a group of common contagious viruses that most often infect children 6 months to 2 years, causing fever with mild respiratory (breathing) diseases like the common “cold”, infection of the eyes (conjunctivitis), croup, bronchitis, bronchiolitis with wheezing, and pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs) in spring/early summer or winter; and less commonly intestinal, genitourinary, or neurological disease.

Airway Obstruction

The airway of the respiratory tract are the tubes that allow the passage of air from your mouth and nose to pass to the lungs with breathing.

Asthma

Asthma is a breathing disorder that involves the airways becoming inflamed.

Bronchiolitis

Bronchiolitis is a common lung infection/inflammation affecting the small tubes to the lungs which usually affects children younger than 2 years of age, and which sometimes results in their hospitalization.

Bronchitis

Bronchitis is a respiratory infection where there is inflammation of the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles.

Bronchoesophagology

Please see Airway Obstruction for further information.

Bronchopulmonary Sequestration

When a fetus develops a cystic piece of nonfunctioning abnormal lung tissue either within a lung (intralobar sequestration) or next to it (extralobar- more common in boys) that is not connected to the body’s airways, its known as bronchopulmonary sequestration.

Choanal Atresia

Choanal atresia occurs when a newborn’s nasal passage is blocked at the junction between the back of the nose and the throat.

Chronic Fatigue

It’s a disabling and complex condition that can be difficult to diagnose and treat, occurring much more commonly in girls than in boys. It may last a long time.

Chronic Lung Disease

Chronic lung disease is the term used for long term breathing problems that can occur after birth from lung injury, usually in very prematurely born infants.

Complete Tracheal Rings

The trachea is the windpipe, and trachea rings are rings of cartilage that enhance the structure of the trachea and prevent it from collapsing. Normally, tracheal rings are C-shaped. But complete tracheal rings have an O-shape that can lead to complications.

Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation

Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation is one or more benign (non-cancerous) lumps (masses) or cysts of abnormal lung tissue usually found in one part of a lung that is present at birth. They can range from small to very large in size when they then may cause significant complications during fetal intrauterine life (10%).

Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation (CPAM)

CPAM is one or more non-cancerous lumps or cysts of abnormal lung tissue usually prenatally diagnosed with US during pregnancy.

Cough

Cough is a reflex that protects your child’s breathing passages by removing mucus, irritating substances and infections by the forceful expulsion of air from the lungs.

Croup

Croup refers to a contagious infection of the upper breathing passages that irritates, inflames, swells and obstructs the upper airways of babies and young children.

Cystic Lung Disease

When abnormal growths known as cysts develop in your lungs, this is known as cystic lung disease. There are many different types of cystic lung disease that can vary in presentation and severity.

Deviated Septum

The nostrils and two nasal passages within the nose are separated by a thin wall called the nasal septum. When this septum is out of place, it can make one nasal passage smaller and cause nasal congestion with difficulty breathing. This is known as deviated septum.

Empyema

The pleura are the smooth coverings between the lungs and the chest wall. Usually they are in close contact with only a small space and a little lubricating fluid between them (pleural space). When this space fills with pus, it’s known as an empyema.

Epiglottitis

The epiglottis is a small flap of tissue that covers the windpipe and directs food to the esophagus. When the epiglottis swells and prevents air from flowing into the lungs, this is known as epiglottitis. It can be life threatening.

Esophageal Atresia

When a fetus’s esophagus, the tube that carries food to the stomach, does not develop correctly, the defect is known as esophageal atresia.

Hemitruncus

In this very rare heart abnormality, the main pulmonary artery and one branch, typically the left, are found in the correct position, however the right one comes out of the ascending aorta.

Hyaline Membrane Disease

Please see Respiratory Distress Syndrome for further information.

Influenza

Influenza is a common illness characterized by symptoms like cough, fever and aches and pains. It frequently occurs during the winter months. Flu is the common term for influenza.

Interstitial Lung Disease

Childhood Interstitial lung disease is a broad term that applies to a rare complex group of different conditions in children (mostly infants) that primarily share a common abnormality of the air sacs and the scar like tissue that surrounds them, leading to difficulty in getting oxygen to the tissues and removing the carbon dioxide produced by them during metabolism.

Laryngeal Cleft

When the body develops normally, the larynx (voice box) sits above the trachea (windpipe), right next to the esophagus. If a laryngeal cleft is present, there’s a gap between the larynx and esophagus that can allow food or liquids to enter the trachea.

Laryngeal Papilloma

Laryngeal papilloma is a disease that leads to wart-like growths on the larynx, or voice box. These are non-cancerous, but they can grow quickly and tend to recur even after being removed.

Myasthenia Gravis (MG)

MG in a rare chronic autoimmune disease in children of all ages, it is characterized by muscle weakness of varying degree in many different areas of the body, it commonly affects the eyes, mouth, throat, arms and legs.

Pertussis

Pertussis is a very contagious bacterial disease that affects all ages but is particularly worrying in infants under 1 year of age.

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a type of lung infection/inflammation which may occur at any age though most often in infants and young children.

Pneumothorax

The pleura are two membranes, (with minimal space between them - the pleura cavity, containing a small amount of lubricating fluid), that lie between the lung and the chest wall. A pneumothorax is air in the pleural cavity. Air leaks into the pleural space can occur suddenly or gradually and may be simple (without buildup of significant pressure but with some stable collapse of the lung) or complicated (from air continuing to leak into the pleural space causing increasing lung collapse -called a tension pneumothorax, with further chest problems).

Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia

Cilia are hair-like structures in the airways that work together to keep the airways clean of dust, debris and foreign contaminants. In primary ciliary dyskinesia, the cilia are irregularly shaped and don’t function properly, which can lead to a number of complications.

Pulmonary Hypertension

Hypertension means high blood pressure, but in the case of pulmonary hypertension, the high pressure affects the pulmonary arteries that take blood from the heart to the lungs.

Pulmonary Hypoplasia

Pulmonary hypoplasia is a rare birth defect where there is incomplete development of lung tissue/blood vessels in one or both lungs, not allowing the baby to breathe normally. It may be Primary, or Secondary to another problem like congenital diaphragmatic hernia, fluid around the lungs (pleural effusions) or problems associated with the fetus making urine (resulting in decreased amniotic fluid- oligohydramnios). It is often associated with heart, gut, genitourinary and bone malformations.

Pulmonary Regurgitation

The pulmonary valve controls the flow of blood from the heart out to the lungs. When this valve leaks, it allows blood to flow backward into the heart before it can travel to the lungs. This leak is known as pulmonary regurgitation.

Pulmonary Stenosis

Pulmonary stenosis is usually a congenital heart defect, which means that babies are born with it.

Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis

Please see Laryngeal Papilloma for further information.

Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Respiratory distress syndrome is one of the most common clinical conditions involving the lungs seen in premature babies. It involves breathing difficulties in the babies, as well as other potential complications.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV is a group of medium sized RNA viruses each containing many nuclei which frequently infects the respiratory tract of young children.

Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a rare chronic inflammatory disease which results in granulomas that can usually affects the skin, joints, eyes, lungs, lymph nodes in children.

Sinusitis

Sinuses are air-filled cavities. There are four located in the skull; behind the cheeks of the face (maxillary; present at birth), around the bridge of the nose (ethmoid; present at birth), forehead (frontal; develops around 7 years of age), and deep in the face behind the nose (sphenoid; develops during adolescence). When these cavities become infected, the condition is known as sinusitis.

Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Pneumothorax is defined as the sudden appearance of air in the chest outside of a lung (between the lung and the chest wall).

Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn

Transient tachypnea of the newborn is a self-limiting, temporary breathing problem that occurs in full term newborn babies starting shortly after birth and lasting up to 3 days.