Welcome to the website of the Pediatric Gastroenterology
Hepatology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit
of the Sapienza University Hospital Umberto I, Rome
The PEDIATRIC GASTROENTEROLOGY, HEPATOLOGY and DIGESTIVE ENDOSCOPY UNIT at the Department of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry of Sapienza University of Rome, University Hospital Umberto I, is the most important Italian referral center for Pediatric Gastrointestinal Diseases and Nutrition, with meaningful scientific and clinical results, making it also one of the most outstanding international academic centers in the field of Pediatric Gastroenterology.
Its leadership in this area comes from the extraordinary results obtained both at scientific level (as evidenced by the analysis of main scientometric databases) and at clinical ground. It should be emphasized that patients treated at this Unit come from Rome and Lazio region as well as from other regions, mainly from middle and south Italy, attracted by the efficiency of clinical performance and the humanity by the medical and nursing teams.
The Unit is organized as follows:
- Day Hospital with comfortable rooms for admission of patients and performance of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures
- Long-term care in a modern and comfortable rooms equipped with TV, computer with internet access, games room, kitchen and school
- Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Motility with modern diagnostic tools for investigating bowel function (manometry , pH-impedance , electrogastrography, dynamic ultrasound, breath test)
- Diagnostic and operative digestive endoscopy, with modern tools (eg single-balloon enteroscopy, latest video-endoscope equipment). In addition to diagnostic procedures, the endoscopic service performs a wide range of therapeutic interventions (dilation, stent applications, sclerosis or ligation of esophageal varices, removal of foreign bodies, wound management by caustic applications, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, etc.)
- Advanced therapies such as intravenous administration of biologics in comfortable rooms.
- Performance of diagnostic imaging (conventional radiology, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, scintigraphy)
Form a purely scientific point of view, the Unit is actively involved in a number of basic research projects (in collaboration with other Universities and Research Institutions,) most of which are translational and aimed at investigating the mechanisms of disease, while other projects are focused on the value of new diagnostic techniques, on the study of the natural history of pediatric gastrointestinal diseases, on the participation in therapeutic trials in various fields of pediatric gastroenterology.
The basic research projects are performed at the Department of Biology of Radiations and Human Health, ENEA, Rome, and are coordinated by dr Laura Stronati and her main coworkers (dr. Anna Negroni, Roberta Vitali, Vincenzo Cesi)
The Unit also performs an intense educational post-graduate program, addressed both to students of the Graduate course in Medicine and to physicians of the School in Pediatrics. It also organizes meetings and conferences for general pediatricians and is the site of a 2nd level Master in Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Digestive Endoscopy.
I hope that through the visitation of this site you have a complete answer to your inquiries while the contact with all members of the Unit is made simple and effective.
Salvatore Cucchiara
Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Pediatric Gastroenterology,
Hepatology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit
Sapienza University Hospital Umberto I, Rome