The Hereditary Angioedema Unit (UAEH) of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital’s Allergology Department has been treating patients with this disorder for more than 25 years.

UAEH outpatients are treated by allergology specialists in a multidisciplinary manner in the Outpatient Clinic in the Old Nursing School and in the Children’s and Women’s Hospital, ensuring transference and continuity of care from childhood through to adulthood for this genetic, lifelong condition.

The Unit is made up of popular, immunologists, geneticists, gynaecologists, maxillofacial surgeons, pharmacists and nurses, who are responsible for:

• diagnosing and monitoring patients
• conducting immunological and genetic studies
• providing health education to ensure that patients are capable of recognising angioedema episodes and self-administering their treatment
• treating patients in special situations such as pregnancy, delivery, the postpartum period and during complex dental procedures.

Depending on the type of care to be given to patients with diagnosed hereditary angioedema and their profile, they should be treated by the following divisions and/or units:

Allergology Outpatient Clinic and Day Hospital

The specialists who work in the adult and paediatric allergology sections are responsible for treating patients aged 16 and under in the Children’s Hospital areas and subsequently facilitating their transfer and continuity of care with monitoring to the adult care departments in the Old Nursing School and the Allergology Day Hospital in the General Hospital.

The Hereditary Angioedema Unit (UAEH) offers an outpatient service to monitor patients with this disease: the Outpatient Clinic on the second floor of the Old Nursing School. Also, as it is a multidisciplinary unit, and depending on the type of patient (child, adult, pregnant woman), it provides care in a number of departments and units in the Children’s and Women’s Hospital, the General Hospital and A&E.

The nursing team specialises in education and specific care for patients with this disease.

A&E Care

Emergency care is provided at the Children’s Hospital for patients up to the age of 16 and at the General Hospital from the age of 17. The professionals who work in the A&Es have been trained to recognise the symptoms of this disease and to quickly provide its specific treatment.

Maxillofacial Surgery Outpatient Clinic

When a patient needs a complex dental or maxillofacial procedure they will be assessed by the hospital’s maxillofacial surgeons and their operation will be organised with the suitable prophylaxis.

Patients who have hereditary angioedema and who are pregnant

The Obstetrics, Foetal Medicine and Anaesthesia Departments have created a Working Unit for High-Risk Pregnancies for women with hereditary angioedema with the aim of monitoring the well-being of mother and child during pregnancy and of providing care during the delivery and postpartum period in accordance with a protocol specific to their type of hereditary angioedema and clinical situation. Care is also provided for high-risk postpartum cases.

In parallel to these services, there is also a reproductive counselling clinic for women with hereditary angioedema. The clinic is part of the Hereditary Angioedema Unit, and is that provided in conjunction with Gynaecology in the Outpatient Clinics of the Children’s and Women’s Hospital.

In this clinic an allergist and a gynaecologist combine their expertise to determine, in accordance with the patient’s clinical situation and type of hereditary angioedema, the possible effects of their having children. Their mission is to provide information and advice in relation to family planning and the reproductive possibilities of the patients living with this disease.

Our Department is one of the finest in the country, especially for oncology, for cancer of the breast and lower female genitalia. These are complex pathologies whose treatment must take a multidisciplinary approach. Thanks to the support we receive from multiple specialists, we are proud to offer a high-quality service.

Coordinating with primary care services and providing comprehensive care from the very first point of contact are both essential aspects of the service. This is necessary for women of all ages, from paediatric gynaecology, paediatric endocrinology, gynaecological pathologies, pre-invasive lesions, which can be precursors to cancer, and malignant tumours in both the genitalia and the breast, menopause and post-menopausal pathologies.

Our overall objective is to provide care for patients in our area of influence, including gynaecological care, as well as training and healthcare prevention measures and, at the same time, we aim to become a Centre of Excellence for certain pathologies, such as high-complexity surgeries.

The specific objectives of the healthcare division are, firstly, to provide medical care as urgently as possible in presumably benign pathologies. For all patients with either presumptive or confirmed diagnosis of neoplasia (abnormal formation of a new tissue, benign or malignant tumour), both gynaecological and mammary, immediate care must be provided. Finally, we must review and produce protocols and clinical guides for all the most common pathologies.

In all cases, we aim to carry out surgical treatment of gynaecological and mammary neoplasms when indicated with as short a waiting time as possible between diagnosis, histology and surgery.

Portfolio of services

• General Gynaecology and Pelvic Floor Unit
• Gynaecological Oncology and Lower Genital Tract Pathology Unit
• Endoscopic Surgery Unit
• Breast Centre
• Breast Pathology Unit
• Gynaecological Ultrasound Unit