Pulmonary care

We offer advanced pulmonary diagnostic services, which allow our lung specialists to provide you with an accurate diagnosis. These services include esophageal and endobronchial ultrasound as well as lung biopsies.

Bronchoscopy

A bronchoscopy is a visual examination of the air passages that lead into the lungs. Bronchoscopies are used to diagnose lung and trachea conditions, such as bleeding, difficulty breathing, chest pain or obstructions of the airway.

Lung cancer screening

We offer low-dose computerized tomography (CT) screenings for people who have a high risk of developing lung cancer.

Your doctor may recommend this lung cancer screening if you:

• Are between 55 and 77 years old
• Are still smoking or have quit in the last 15 years
• Have smoked at least 30 "pack years" (the number of packs you smoked per day multiplied by the number of years you smoked)

Navigational Bronch/Lung Nodule Clinic

The Navigational Bronch/Lung Nodule Clinic at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital and the Navigational Bronch/Lung Nodule Program at LewisGale Medical Center are dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment and management of lung diseases. We use minimally invasive technology to determine if lung nodules are cancerous. A lung nodule is defined as a spot in the lung that is visible on a chest X-ray or CT scan.

At Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, doctors use advanced technology to convert your CT scan into a 3D map of your lungs. Your doctor uses this map to guide a bronchoscope to the lung nodule and remove a tissue sample (biopsy) for analysis. This minimally invasive procedure is a nonsurgical way for your doctor to access hard-to-reach areas of your lungs.

At LewisGale Medical Center, doctors use advanced robotic technology and electromagnetic navigation with real-time vision input from a camera situated at the tip of a bronchoscope, allowing the doctor to access small, peripheral nodules in hard-to-reach areas of the lung, and enabling them to make a more accurate diagnosis of possible early-stage lung cancer.

Pulmonary function testing

Pulmonary function tests, including pulmonary stress tests, are breathing tests that indicate how well your lungs are working. These tests assess how much air you can blow out, how much air your lungs can hold and how hard you can blow air out.

Additionally, pulmonary stress tests may be used to help determine if patients with lung cancer have the capacity to undergo surgery. The results of these tests allow us to develop the best treatment plan for you.

Sleep studies

Our hospitals have sleep programs and centers where highly trained specialists perform sleep studies. A sleep study will help us see if a sleep disorder, such as obstructive sleep apnea, is affecting your breathing at night. This allows us to develop the best treatment plan for your respiratory condition.

Asthma is a chronic condition of the airways in the lungs, which narrows those airways and makes it difficult to breathe. If you are having an asthma attack when you visit, we will determine your peak airflow and provide treatment accordingly.

We might administer a bronchodilator, which is a medication that opens the airways. If you have severe asthma, we also provide bronchial thermoplasty treatment. Instead of medication, this outpatient procedure is another way to open your airways.

Thoracic cancer develops within the chest. This can include lung, esophageal, pleural, mediastinal and chest wall tumors.

We offer comprehensive thoracic and lung cancer care, including screening followed by a prompt diagnosis. Then we can offer treatments such as minimally invasive surgery.

Our approach to pulmonary treatment goes beyond "standard fixes." We provide you with effective, long-term respiratory solutions.

Some of these treatments include:

• Bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) therapy
• Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy
• Lung and thoracic surgery
• Oxygen-weaning therapy
• Pulmonary rehabilitation
• Trilogy therapy
• Ventilator management

Lung and thoracic surgery

If medication and noninvasive treatments aren't right for you, your surgeon will determine the most appropriate procedure based on your healthcare needs.

Some of our thoracic surgery options include:

• Conventional lobectomy: removes a lobe of the lung, usually to treat early-stage lung cancer
• Conventional thoracoscopy: uses a tiny lens and light source (instead of a video camera) for the procedure
• Mediastinoscopy and mediastinal surgery: examines the center part of the chest cavity, often to determine the extent of lymph node involvement in lung cancer
• Pericardial window: drains fluid from the membrane surrounding the heart
• Segmentectomy: removes part of an organ, gland or tumor and surrounding tissue
• Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS): uses a tiny, high-definition video camera (a thoracoscope) and miniature instruments

Pulmonary rehabilitation can help manage the symptoms of acute and chronic lung conditions. We provide pulmonary rehabilitation as part of our comprehensive physical therapy and rehabilitation services.

Our pulmonologists, respiratory specialists and therapists will work together to develop a rehabilitative plan to improve your pulmonary health. This plan may include exercise training, education, smoking cessation programs, nutritional counseling and oxygen therapy.