The Department of Pediatrics of the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital (KSVGH) provides comprehensive care for all newborns, infants, children, and adolescents. Our faculties include a full range of pediatric sub-specialists, including pediatric cardiology, gastroenterology, hematology and oncology, immunology and rheumatology, nephrology, neurology, endocrinology, neonatology, infectious disease, medical genetics and pediatric intensive care. We also cooperate with many other specialists in pediatric surgery, pediatric anesthesiology, pediatric radiology, pediatric psychiatry, pediatric dentistry, pediatric ENT , pediatric urology and pediatric cardiovascular surgery for caring those children in need.
Our faculty also are engaged in a wide variety of research. Writing medical articles is also an important part of residency and fellowship training in our department and it makes more young doctors start to have interests in medical researches. Teaching is another important task for our faculty. Our department provides the most comprehensive and solid training program for graduates of medical school who choose pediatrics as their careers.
Cardiology
Genetics
Allergy and Immunological
Pulmonology
Infectious diseases
Neonatology
Nephrology
Neurology
Gastroenterology
Hematology and Oncology
Emergent and Intensive care
Cardiology
The Pediatric Cardiology Division is responsible for the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management of the congenital heart diseases (CHD) and many acquired heart disease such as Kawasaki Disease. We perform diagnostic procedures including echocardiograms and cardiac catheterizations and many sophisticated therapeutic interventions, such as balloon valvular plasty for aortic or pulmonary stenosis, balloon angioplasty for coarctation of aorta or stenotic surgical shunt conduit, balloon atrial septostomy for critical cyanotic CHD or severe pulmonary hypertension in children and and adults; several CHD could also be corrected by several newly developed techniques in interventional cardiac catheterization, such as transcatheter closure of ASD and PDA, occluder the abnormal vessels (ex: MAPCAs).
Genetics
Our division is responsible for diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing care of children with various genetic or metabolic disorders. Diagnostic evaluations are performed for children and adults who are suspected of having a genetic disorder, have significant developmental delay, growth delay, dysmorphic or unusual physical features, structural birth defects, metabolic disorders or multiple system disorders. The goal of our evaluations is to arrive at a specific diagnosis that will allow us to provide information on the etiology, prognosis and recurrence risk associated with the condition. Genetic counseling is available at the conclusion of our evaluations to discuss inheritance patterns, reproductive risks, and options for prenatal diagnosis if they exist.
Allergy and Immunology
Our Allergy and Immunological division specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management of the immunological, allergic and rheumatological disease of children. Included are asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatits, allergic conjunctivitis, urticaria, systemic lupus erythematosus ( SLE ), Juvenile rheumatic arthritis ( JRA ), and the other autoimmune or rheumatological diseases of children. Besides, primary and secondary immunodeficiencies are included. Allergen screening test is also provided.
Pulmonology
Our Pulmonology division specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management of acute and chronic respiratory diseases of children. Included are cough, chronic cough, chest tightness, difficult to breathe, frequent cough at night, pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, acute bronchiolitis, croup, and asthma...etc.
Infectious diseases
Infectious diseases consist of the majority of acute diseases in children. Severe infections emerge gradually due to the presence of many immunocompromised patients in our department and the progression of nosocomial infection in recent years. Hence the spectrum of pediatric infectious diseases turns much more wide and complicated. Our clinical services are to provide comprehensive care for children with infectious diseases and avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics.
Neonatology
The Division of Neonatology offers medical care to newborns with all aspects of illness related to this age group. We spend 24 hours a day to care for critically ill newborns in our NBCU and are prepared for reaching any newborn in need. Consultation or referral services are available on a 24 hours a day basis. Our NICU provides best care for the prematurity infants and has become the most important referral center in South Taiwan. We linked our studies to clinical services. Establishing the ventilatory strategies in newborn, analysis of pulmonary function in infants and studies about the fetal/neonatal lung development, all are aimed at applying this results to preventing or treating neonatal pulmonary diseases.
Nephrology
The Division of Pediatric Nephrology is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of children with disabling or life-threatening disorders of the kidneys and with complications of kidney disease. Common pediatric nephrologic diseases include urinary tract infections, the nephrotic syndrome, glomerulonephritis, tubular diseases, acute and chronic renal failure. Specific congenital diseases include hypoplastic kidneys, polycystic kidneys, and urinary tract obstruction. Our division is committed to providing care of the highest possible quality, to the training pediatricians and pediatric nephrologists who will carry on with this mission, and to developing further understanding and new treatments of kidney diseases.
Neurology
The Section of Pediatric Neurology provides comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic care for children with a variety of neurological disorders, including childhood epilepsy, developmental genetic disorders, headaches, neuromuscular disease and neurocutaneous disorders. Primary care and specialist physicians refer many children with neurological disorders to our division for further neuropsychological evaluations. Taking care for the children with developmental delay is another important focus of our services. Through the cooperation with many other specialists, we offer comprehensive care for these children requiring special education, rehabilitation and treatment.
Gastroenterology
Our gastroenterology division provides the best and most comprehensive care of children with gastrointestinal or liver diseases. We perform percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy for offering better nutrition to those children who have problems in oral feeding.
Hematology and Oncology
Our goal as pediatric oncologists and hematologist is to coordinate the efforts of the many medical specialists, including surgeons, pathologists, radiologists and social workers who work with us to help these patients. Our division provides excellent diagnostic tools to early detection and treatment of many hematological and oncologic diseases, including thalassemia, aplastic anemia, acute leukemia, lymphoma and many other malignancy in childhood.
Emergent and Intensive care
The Division of Pediatric Emergent and Critical Care provides emergent/intensive care services for children of all ages with most emergent or critical contions. We have 11-bed Pediatric and 12-bed neonatal ICU, and offers complete mechanical ventilation support, hemodynamic monitoring, post-operative cardiac and neurosurgical care, and so ON. Respiratory care is very important in intensive care, especially in children. We provide individualized care for children with airway anomalies, pulmonary insufficiency or neurological disorders. Choosing appropriate ventilator, educating family about postural drainage and chest care, and emergent treatment for some unexpected conditions are crucial before discharging the patients. In addition, we also have an energetic and enthusiastic team working in the pediatric emergency room for the management of emergent condition for pediatric patient visiting our pediatric emergent room.