UofL Health - Jewish Hospital is home to a team of fellowship trained physicians, specialists and technology to treat a wide variety of advanced lung diseases, including enhanced diagnostics and minimally invasive surgical techniques.
Our diagnostic capabilities:
- Robot assisted, navigational bronchoscopy with the Monarch Platform
- Rigid bronchoscopy, used for locating and retrieving foreign objects while protecting the airway
- Bronchoplasty, surgical repair of a defect in the bronchus, the main airway to the lungs
- Endobronchial ultrasound: This may be performed during a bronchoscopy to help diagnose or determine the stage of lung cancer.
- Transthoracic lung biopsies, a method to remove a piece of lung tissue for examination.
We offer a multidisciplinary, individualized approach to caring for our patients that includes treating minor lung conditions like asthma and advanced lung diseases like COPD, pulmonary and cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, etc. while also providing the region’s only ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support for critical care patients. We are also home to the UofL Health - Trager Transplant Center that offers diagnosis and treatment of advanced lung disease and lung transplantation.
What is ECMO?
ECMO or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a machine that pumps a patient’s blood outside the body, oxygenates it and then returns it to the patient. ECMO is a life-saving technique that temporarily fills in for the heart and lungs when those organs are unable to fulfill their intended functions. It is very similar to a heart-lung bypass machine that is used during open-heart surgeries.
UofL Health – Jewish Hospital is one of only two facilities in Kentucky using ECMO for patients who need an advanced level of cardiopulmonary care.
When is ECMO used at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital?
- Patients recovering from heart failure, lung failure or heart surgery
- As a bridge option to further treatment, such as a bridge to lung transplantation
- For support during high-risk procedures in the cardiac catheterization lab
