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by Cindy
Abole
Public Relations
Children suffering from chronic
abdominal pain, inflammatory bowel
disease or other gastrointestinal
disorders now have the addition of
new expertise with the opening of
MUSC Children's Hospital's
pediatric gastrointestinal
procedure suite.
The new $1
million pediatric therapeutic
endoscopy suite expands services
provided by the Children's
Hospital's Division of Pediatric
Gastroenterology and Nutrition
team to diagnose young patients
with esophageal, gastrointestinal,
hepatic (liver) and pancreatic
diseases and disorders. This
advanced suite is the only one of
its kind in South Carolina and
complements services provided by
the Children's Hospital and MUSC's
Digestive Disease Center (DDC).
More specifically, it brings
together pediatric services and
specialists in gastroenterology
(GI), surgery, radiology,
anesthesiology and other
subspecialties, to provide a
child-friendly, innovative
approach to care for children and
their families.
 Dr. J. Antonio
Quiros performs surgery in MUSC
Children's Hospital's new
pediatric endoscopy suite Sept.
4. For information, visit http://www.musckids.com/gi/index.htm.
The suite is
under the direction of pediatric
gastroenterology chief J. Antonio
Quiros, M.D., who is the newest
specialist to join the pediatric
GI team of Bhanu Pillai, M.D., and
Christine Carter-Kent, M.D., nurse
practitioners and a nutritionist.
Earlier this year, the Children's
Hospital's pediatric
gastroenterology program was
ranked for the first time, along
with other pediatric specialties,
among the top 50 hospitals in
2012-13 by U.S. News & World
Report's Best Children's Hospitals
report. MUSC Children's Hospital's
program also hosts the state's
only pediatric liver
transplantation program, whose
strong outcomes contributed to the
program ranking.
Quiros said he
worked with hospital leaders and
digestive disease experts to
devise a therapeutic pediatric GI
procedure suite where all
equipment is in the same facility,
which is important. "This service
follows the hospital's tradition
of care that we share with
patients and families in these
types of procedures."
The center
allows specialists to perform
diagnostic and interventional
endoscopic procedures in children
and adolescents. GI specialists
use X-ray and ultrasound imaging
equipment in combination with an
endoscope, a thin, flexible tube
equipped with a tiny video camera
and light on its end to view
what's inside the body. The
specialist also can remove tissue
samples or objects or place
treatment in a child's upper
intestine or lower digestive
track. Some of the procedures
offered will include pediatric
endoscopy, colonoscopy, flexible
sigmoidoscopy, stent placements,
endoscopic ultrasound with
fine-needle biopsies, endoscopic
retrograde
cholangiopancreatography,
stricture dilation and
fluoroscopy.
"Some patients
have multiple, chronic medical
problems and need a team of
specialists to determine a proper
diagnosis and set up an
established plan of care for the
patient and family," Quiros said.
The procedure
room is located on the fifth floor
of the Children's Hospital.
Parents can accompany their child
to the pre-operating area and wait
for their return. The new room's
design was the result of months of
collaboration coordinated by
Quiros, the Digestive Disease
Center's adult endoscopy services
staff, GI equipment technicians
and the hospital's clinical design
and operations team. The suite
features video monitoring and
imaging equipment, an endoscopic
ultra sound device, flat screen
computers to generate reports, a
high tech fluoroscope, endoscopes
and other GI equipment.
These services,
according to Quiros, will
coordinate with DDC's Adult
Endoscopy specialists, allowing
adult and pediatric endoscopy
specialists to collaborate, share
skills and discuss treatments.
An important
priority for Quiros and his
colleagues is to treat patients
statewide and regionally. Quiros
is traveling around the state to
meet practitioners and GI
specialists to promote these
specialized services that are
available at MUSC. Rita M. Ryan,
M.D., Department of Pediatrics
chair, is promoting the service
with pediatric leaders in other
cities in S.C. Quiros is already
seeing patients, receiving
referrals from elsewhere in the
state and plans to coordinate and
host regular educational pediatric
GI conferences for specialists
starting in 2013. Most
importantly, Quiros added an
additional clinic day for his team
so they can eliminate the backlog
of patients waiting to see a
pediatric gastroenterologist.
"Dr. Quiros
brings new expertise and skills in
a higher level of pediatric
endoscopy that are unique to our
patients," Ryan said. "His
leadership and experience
complement and strengthen the
services already provided by our
nationally recognized pediatric GI
and nutrition team."
For now, Quiros
wants to focus on providing the
highest level of patient care,
hiring more trained providers to
support his service, coordinate
research opportunities and
establish specialty training for
graduate medical education.
"With the
support of caring, trained GI
experts and staff, plus the
commitment with hospital
leadership in this specialty,
there are no limitations to what
we can do," Quiros said.
Pediatric
Gastroenterology Team
J. Antonio Quiros, M.D., (chief),
Bhanu Pillai, M.D., Christine
Carter-Kent, M.D., Analina Bayang,
R.N., Tina Jordan, R.N., Jo
Allison Duane, R.N., Kelli Miller,
Jennifer Beall, R.N., Deborah
Oliver and Colleen Carver
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