Information about the Centre

At Leuven University Children's Hospital we aim to provide children with a comprehensive range of high-quality care through cooperation with local, regional and international care providers and community dialogue.

We provide a complete range of care programmes offering high-quality treatment for newborns right through to adolescents, with special emphasis on age-specific needs and longitudinal counselling.
These care programmes are also supported by specialised research programmes and offer contextual education with continuous professional training. They are inspired by ethical values, checked for social relevance and meet high-quality standards..

• Child Haematology and Oncology
• Child Gastroenterology-Hepatology
• Child Immune Deficiencies (CID)
• Child Neurology
• Diabetes
• Metabolic Disorders
• Paediatric Surgery
• Child Cardiology
• Child Nephrology

Child Haematology and Oncology

Child haematology and oncology includes the total care of children and adolescents with cancer or with a haematological condition.
The following care programmes are situated in the clinical setting: benign haematology, haemostasis, haemangiomas and vascular malformations, leukaemias and lymphomas, fixed tumours, brain tumours, histiocytosis, congenital cancer syndromes, immune system deficiencies, stem cell transplantation, tumour vaccination, long-term follow-up and palliative care.
The specific character of the conditions and their rarity calls for a multidisciplinary approach. All children and adolescents from 0 to 16 years are discussed and monitored by multidisciplinary teams, from diagnosis to long-term follow-up. Each week a multidisciplinary oncological meeting is held involving the oncological surgeon and the radiotherapist, as well as a multidisciplinary neuro(surgical) oncological discussion. There is also a weekly multidisciplinary meeting concerning haemophilia.

The medical Team

Professor Dr C. Van Geet
Dr A. Uyttebroeck
Prof Dr S. Van Gool
Dr M. Renard
Professor Dr K. Norga
Dr W. Van De Casseye

Child Gastroenterology-Hepatology

Besides providing day-to-day care for patients with child gastroenterological and hepatological disorders, the Child Gastroenterology Department also pursues a scientific research programme.
The day-to-day clinical care consists of consultations (general child gastroenterology), supervision of hospitalised children with gastroenterological disorders, dietary advice in the ward, technical activities (gastroscopy, coloscopy, inserting a PEG catheter, pH-metry, manometry (oesophageal, antroduodenal and colonic) and liver punctions).
There is a multidisciplinary consultation with a speech therapist, a remedial educationalist, a dietician (nutrition team, once a week), a multidisciplinary consultation with abdominal surgery in collaboration with Professor Dr M. Miserez (once a month) and a multidisciplinary hepatology consultation in collaboration with Professor Dr D. Cassiman and Scientific Research Fund (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - FWO) trainee assistant surgeon Dr P. Witters (once a month).
The complete supervision of the consultations, outpatient consultations and hospitalisations is carried out by a single staff member, namely Professor Dr I. Hoffman, in collaboration with consultant Dr P. Marien (consultation 4 hours a week).

The scientific research programme has 3 main pillars:
1) motility of the gastro-intestinal system,
2) inflammatory intestinal disorders and
3) transplantation of the liver and the small intestine.

The combination of clinical care and scientific research makes this child gastroenterological ward unique. It provides not only quality healthcare but also conducts scientific research (with publications).

The Medical Team

Professor Dr I. Hoffman
Dr P. Mariën
Professor Dr D. Cassiman

Child Immune Deficiencies  (CID)

The subdiscipline CID provides care for children with a primary disorder in the immune system. Once a week there is a consultation for children suffering or suspected of suffering from the aforementioned disorders. The diagnostic possibilities are extensive, thanks among other things to good national and international cooperation. One important clinical task of the subdiscipline CID is also to deliver optimum care for patients suffering from an immune system disorder by means of low-threshold consultation. Every day children come to the daycentre for the administering of immunoglobulins. In addition, an optimum approach to patients with multidisciplinary problems is assured through close cooperation with the other subdisciplines of the Children's Hospital. Where indicated, stem cell transplantation is proposed as a treatment and carried out in our own centre. There is also close cooperation with the regional paediatricians. Finally the subdiscipline CID is also active in research with as the main themes the molecular basis of anti-polysaccharide antibody deficiency in collaboration with the Immunology Laboratory, headed by Professor Dr Xavier Bossuyt, and the study of morphological, functional and molecular analysis of granule defects in granulocytes, lymphocytes and thrombocytes in cooperation with the Centre for Molecular and Vascular Biology, headed by Professor Dr Christel Van Geet.

The Medical Team

Professor Dr I. Meyts

Child Neurology

The Child Neurology Department in the Children's Hospital specialises in the diagnosis and treatment/support of children with neurological problems. Various care programmes have been defined: general child neurology, epilepsy, development disorders, muscular diseases, spasticity and cerebral palsy, brain tumours and neonatal neurology. This total care is given in cooperation with the different departments, such as radiology, neurosurgery, human heredity and ophthalmology.
The video EEG laboratory supports the diagnosis of epilepsy. 'Conventions' for neuromuscular diseases, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and epilepsy surgery guarantee a multidisciplinary approach. For the rehabilitation of our patients we work together with the rehabilitation centres in Pulderbos and Pellenberg.

The Medical Team

Professor Dr L. Lagae
Professor Dr P. De Cock
Professor Dr G. Buyse
Dr N. Goemans
Dr C. Verpoorten
Dr M. Boel
Dr E. Ortibus

Diabetes

The multidisciplinary child diabetes team is geared towards the treatment of children and adolescents with type 1, type 2 or MODY diabetes.
This multidisciplinary child diabetes team consists of:

• a paediatrician/diabetologist,
• a paediatric nurse specialising in diabetes in children and adolescents,
• a dietician specialising in the support of children and adolescents with diabetes,
• a clinical psychologist/child psychiatrist,
• a social assistant.

The education of children with diabetes first takes account of their age. The educational material is adapted to their level of development. Naturally, the role of the parents in the diabetes care of young children is very important. They must therefore be the first to "be trained" in diabetes care. As the children grow older, attempts will be made to show them what correct diabetes care is all about; support from their social network remains essential throughout.
Together with the dietician we seek a healthy, adapted diet that is feasible and also fits in with school or after-school schemes. In this way the impact of these changes will not be too drastic.
The dietician regularly adapts the diet according to the growth and development of the child and whenever the therapy plan is changed (for example, on changeover to insulin analogues). The child psychologist or psychiatrist will attend preventively, and perhaps also therapeutically, to any psychosocial complications that living with diabetes may cause. Everyone tries spontaneously to place the care increasingly in the hands of the growing young person. Reeducation is thus a constant team assignment.
The reception desk of these children's diabetes centres is staffed 24 hours a day: someone from the team can always be reached if unexpected problems should arise.

The Medical Team

Professor Dr K. Casteels
Dr M. Van Helvoirt
Dr W. Asscherickx

Metabolic Diseases

The Metabolic Diseases care programme in Leuven, run by the Leuven Centre for Metabolic Diseases, detects children and adults suffering from a hereditary metabolic disorder (or metabolic disease), supports and treats them, and also carries out preventive surgery in this specific area. The metabolic team consists of 3 metabolic doctors (a neuropaediatrician, a hepatologist, a paediatrician) and an emeritus professor with a special appointment, plus, on a part-time basis, two dieticans, a psychologist, a social worker, a physiotherapist, a metabolic nurse and a secretary. The main activity consists of consultation on Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning and Friday. The team has special expertise, including, in particular, in the field of the congenital defects of glycosylation, signal transduction defects, mitochondrial disorders, porphyrias, lysosomal stacking disorders and enzyme replacement therapy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, liver transplantation in the event of metabolic diseases, hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome, and adults suffering from a metabolic disease.

The Medical Team

Professor D. J. Jaeken
Professor Dr D. Cassiman
Dr L. Regal

Paediatric Surgery

Congenital pathology requiring surgical correction is treated by the staff members of the Department of Abdominal Surgery (www.kulas.be).
The surgeons have specialised in the different fields of abdominal surgery, but Professor Dr M. Miserez takes care of children with congenital gastro-intestinal malformations, including Hirschsprung's disease.
For decades the Department has served as a tertiary reference centre for children born with Hirschsprung's disease or congenital anorectal malformations and has a vast experience in these rare diseases. They have specialised in the screening and diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease (manometry) as well as in sphincter-saving operations for imperforate anus with an ectopic anal canal.

Contact Details

Paediatrics and Paediatric Surgery
Herestraat 49
3000 Leuven