Pediatric Aerodigestive Medicine

This major reference work serves as a comprehensive resource on pediatric aerodigestive medicine. Aerodigestive medicine is one of the fastest growing pediatric subspecialties. Currently, there are more than 50 aerodigestive centers in the US, and Europe is beginning to build centers to keep pace with the United States. This growth offers a tremendous opportunity for teaching and learning. While there is a growing number of published papers in the field, many of the large centers have accrued significant experience caring for these patients which, when melded with published research, would become a critical manual by which newer centers could operate.

The text is divided into four sections: General Chapters, The Gastroenterology Perspective, The Otolaryngology Perspective, and The Pulmonary Perspective. Each section goes into deep and comprehensive detail on what each specialty needs to consider while caring for patients with aerodigestive disorders. Written by a diverse, international group of authors who have established expertise in the care of these patients, each chapter reviews the state of the field and current literature while providing diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms with supporting endoscopic images.

Some integral topics covered that are not detailed fully in existing literature include:

• the science behind why these centers are critical;
• new airway diagnoses discovered through these centers, including laryngeal clefts, tracheomalacia, and bronchiectasis;
• broad gastrointestinal differential diagnoses to include oropharyngeal, esophageal and gastric dysmotility;
• novel diagnostic tests used by specialists to clarify diagnoses (e.g., functional luminal imaging probes, high resolution manometry, airway biomarkers, novel airway scaffolding techniques);
• the interrelationship between ventilatory support and the gastrointestinal tract;
• complex feeding issues including enteral tube supportin these patients;
• mechanisms of lung injury;
• the management of key patient populations (e.g. esophageal atresia, Trisomy 21, diaphragmatic hernia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia).

This book is essentially interdisciplinary and serves as an ideal reference for pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, otolaryngologists, feeding therapists, and complex care pediatricians who care for children with complex respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders.