Asthma and Allergy Center
St. Louis Children's Hospital
Asthma care and research are prominent activities of the division. More than 3,000 children and adolescents with asthma are seen annually by our physicians, nurse practitioners, and staff. Children hospitalized with asthma are admitted to St. Louis Children’s Hospital receive care by division physicians or advanced practice nurses who collaborate in our evidence-based asthma intervention model (AIM).
Management of children with all forms of allergic disease is also an important part of the division’s clinical activities. Faculty physicians provide expert consultation for children and adolescents with food and drug allergy, rhinitis, sinusitis, eczema, urticaria/angioedema and other atopic disorders. The division offers diagnostic testing for penicillin allergy and oral challenges for the assessment of food allergy, as well as approved desensitization treatments for peanut allergy and other allergens. A state-of-the-art pulmonary function laboratory supports patient care by providing comprehensive lung function testing.
Faculty in the Pediatric Asthma and Allergy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have led and collaborate in multiple National Institutes of Health supported pediatric asthma initiatives, including AsthmaNet, the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP), the Severe Asthma Research Program and the Inner City Asthma Consortium. These research networks are critical in helping us understand the origins of asthma as well as the best approaches to asthma management. Division faculty have also pioneered the use of asthma coaching to overcome barriers that interfere with asthma care delivery for children with severe asthma in urban communities and have developed a multidisciplinary program focused on reducing asthma-associated morbidities and mortality in these children.
The division treats a variety of less common pediatric lung disorders, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, bronchiolitis obliterans, interstitial lung diseases, primary ciliary dyskinesia, tracheobronchomalacia, vocal cord dysfunction, aspiration disorders, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and a variety of pulmonary complications associated with neuromuscular disorders.
Aerodigestive disorders
Together with colleagues from pediatric otolaryngology and pediatric gastroenterology, we have established multidisciplinary subspecialty care for children with anatomic or functional disorders of the aerodigestive tract. These disorders may include tracheoesophageal fistulas, laryngeal clefts, vocal cord paralysis, and other anomalies of the airway and upper gastrointestinal tract, as well as functional aspiration disorders and their related anatomic causes.
Technology-dependence
Division physicians and nurses also provide subspecialty care in our multidisciplinary pediatric technology-dependent clinic, which coordinates hospital-based and home care of ventilator-dependent children and provides consultative services at Ranken-Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital for Children. Members of the division contributed to the official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline that outline standards for pediatric chronic home invasive ventilation, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The pediatric pulmonary function laboratory at St. Louis Children’s Hospital specializes in pediatric testing from infancy through adolescence and early adulthood. The laboratory offers a full range of lung function tests for clinical and research patients. In addition to standard tests of lung mechanics and function (including spirometry, plethysmography, maximal respiratory pressures and diffusion capacity measures), the laboratory conducts specialized tests including stress cardiopulmonary testing, multiple breath washout studies, and bronchoprovocation tests. The lab also performs state-of-the-art infant pulmonary function testing, including plethysmographic measurements of lung volume and raised-volume forced flows.
Pediatric pulmonologists perform more than 200 flexible bronchoscopy procedures annually. Most procedures are performed in the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Ambulatory Procedure Suite on an outpatient basis, while more emergent procedures can be performed during inpatient admissions. Depending on the indication, bronchial washings, bronchoalveolar lavage, endobronchial biopsies and transbronchial biopsy can be collected during the procedures, and procedures may be performed in conjunction with pediatric otolaryngologists and pediatric gastroenterologists. Because of our extensive experience with lung transplantation, our center is identified as a leader, and has contributed to the American Thoracic Society guidelines for performing flexible airway endoscopy in children, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Contact Us
Patients & parents
Voice: 314-454-2694
Fax: 314-454-2515
Toll-free: 888-503-2237
Physician referrals
Voice: 314-454-2694
Fax: 314-454-2515
Toll-free: 800-678-4357