PULMONOLOGY (Respiratory Medicine and Lungs)

• Tuberculosis
• Pleural diseases, which affect the pleural space and are filled by fluid, or air which escapes from the lung producing a lung collapse
• Diagnosis and staging of lung tumors

The symptoms suggesting you need to visit our respiratory experts are: Shortness of breath, wheezy chest, cough, allergy to dust, pollens, pets, mold spiting up blood, fever with abnormal weight loss, or profuse night sweating, snoring with daily sleepiness, and daily fatigue. Also, purulent phlegm, chronic phlegm, heavy or long-term smoker (including shisha), chest pain while breathing, inhaled occupational exposure, contact with tuberculosis, abnormal finding in the chest X-ray.

After conducting thorough check-up and running the necessary tests, our specialists diagnose the causes of your respiratory problem and propose solutions to help you. Each patient at Fakeeh University Hospital is given intensive care and attention so that the respiratory disorder can be treated effectively.

Diagnostic services

At Fakeeh University Hospital, the department of pulmonology is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic services. Whether you are an outpatient or an inpatient, once the doctor has taken the initial medical history and done a check-up, they will perform a pulmonology diagnostic test on you to identify the disease.

The services include the following:

• Pulmonary function test to see how well your lungs are working, how fast you move the air, how well you transfer the oxygen to the blood, how elastic are your lungs
• Pulse oximetry test to determine the oxygen saturation level in your blood
• Spirometry, to know how fast you move the air to your lungs and if there is any limitation to it
• Bronchial dilatation test, to see how your air pipe tubes react to a bronchodilator agent
• Diffusion test to check how well your lungs transfer the oxygen to your circulatory system
• Plethysmography, to know what your total lung capacity is and if there is any abnormal resistance in the airways or breathing pipe tubes
• Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide Test, to determine how inflamed your bronchi are due to asthma
• Respiratory pressures to know how strong your breathing muscles are
• 6 minutes walking test to assess the prognosis and severity for interstitial lung diseases and pulmonary hypertension
• Oscillometry, to know if there is any abnormal resistance in the airways or breathing pipe tubes
• Chest X-ray
• Chest CT scan (with and without contrast), high-resolution CT scan, CT pulmonary angiography
• Chest ultrasound to examine the organs and other chest structures

• Respiratory inhalants allergy test/allergens blood test
• Labs to determine Alpha1-antitrypsin or immune deficiencies, genetic analysis for cystic fibrosis mutations, serologies for influenza, legionella, pneumococcus, mycoplasma, virus, and more
• Phlegm culture and analysis for investigation of respiratory infections, including TB
• US-guided thoracentesis (pleural tap) to remove air or fluid from around your lungs, including the analysis of pleural fluid
• US-guided pleural biopsy to remove a small tissue sample from the pleura, which is the membrane that surrounds your lungs
• Intercostal drainage, which is to insert a tube inside your pleura to remove any fluid collection of air abnormally found in there
• Intrapleural fibrinolysis, to break the abnormal fibrosis inside an infected collection of pus in your pleura
• Bronchoscopy, which is to insert a thin tube with a camera in the tip to exam your airway tubes and to take biopsies or other samples such as (with bronchoalveolar lavage, biopsies, trans-bronchial needle aspiration, and more)
• Overnight polysomnography, sleep study to help diagnose sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea
• Arterial blood gasanalysis, to know the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood and if supplemental oxygen is required
• Non-invasive ventilation (CPAP or BiPAP)
• Pulmonary rehabilitation, chest physiotherapy and mucus drainage

Once the pulmonology disease has been diagnosed, the doctor will recommend a cost-saving and time-efficient treatment. We value each of our patients and suggest treatments that are ideal for them.

Sleep Respiratory Disorders, Evaluation and Treatment

Our experts at the Pulmonology Department take immense care of each patient who walks through the doors of Fakeeh University Hospital. We firmly believe that patients should be provided with the best healthcare services that improve their quality of life, relieve them of any pains they are suffering, and provide them with recommendations to enhance their overall health. One of the services that we offer in the pulmonology department in evaluating and treating sleep disorders.

People who suffer from any respiratory sleep disorders cannot wake up fresh in the morning, which affects their work and personal life, affecting even other organs and systems such as the heart, circulation, respiration, and brain.

At Fakeeh University Hospital, our doctors evaluate the sleep disorders you are suffering from and recommend treatments with a multi-disciplinary approach (respiratory, nutrition, ENT, neurology, behavioral, dental/maxillofacial) to help manage them. This way, sometimes if a person might be suffering from some other diseases, he/she can be notified as the doctor diagnoses their condition through this approach.