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We are in charge of bronchial, lung disease treatments.

CENTRAL

Respiratory Internal Medicine

What is Pulmonology?

The Department of Pulmonology is in charge of treatment and cure for bronchial, lung diseases.
Many patients visit the hospital because of these main symptoms, cough, sputum, respiratory difficulty, and pain in the chest. Influenza, which has main symptoms such as high fever, cough, and the shivers, have different cause and prognosis than a common cold. So in the case of the elderly/ infirm and chronic patients, prevention, early diagnosis and treatment is critical. Also the main cause of diseases that the Department of Pulmonology primarily deals with, such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), are deeply related with smoking. As for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), it should be treated by professional treatment.

Primary Target Diseases

  • 01Pneumonia

    Pneumonia is an infectious disease occurred at the lungs. It causes various symptoms such as pain in the chest, respiratory difficulty, increase of heart beat and ventilatory frequency, nausea-vomiting, shiver. Especially, it may cause yellow or green sputum, cough, and over 38-degree fever. We recommend hospital treatment to severe pneumonia patients, the elderly, and chronic patients. As severe pneumonia may pose a risk of life, it needs professional treatment. For prevention, vaccination against pneumococcus is recommended to high-risk group patients and those aged 65 or older. Influenza vaccination is also somewhat helpful when it comes to severe pneumonia prevention. So if you’re an aged 2 to 6 infant or a high-risk group patient over 50 with chronic lung disease, you should get vaccinated between October to January annually.

  • 02Asthma

    Asthma is a chronic inflammation disease on the throat. It causes repeated stridor, respiratory difficulty, a feeling of thorax pressure, and cough especially at night time or early morning. Asthmatic attack (or exacerbation) may be sporadic, but airway inflammation stays chronical. For symptom control, improvement of lung function, and anti-seizure, medicine is needed on a daily bases. In order to relieve acute symptoms like stridor, feeling of thorax pressure, and coughing, we may use medicine treatment. During the treatment of asthma, a companionship between the patient and asthma therapist is needed. Patient will be guided the ability to control asthma by the help of an asthma therapist.

  • 03Tuberculosis

    Tuberculosis is a disease caused by lung infection of tuberculosis germs. Cough and sputum might last for over 2~3 weeks, hemoptysis and respiratory difficulty could occur or in some cases show no symptoms at all. Besides that, systemic symptoms such as pain in the chest, fever, night sweat, lack of appetite, weight loss, fatigue may occur. The treatment is proceeded for 6 months, using 4 kinds of primary antituberculous agents in general. 이This efficient method boasts a successful treatment rate near 100%, and low relapse rate of 2~3%. But in some cases, extend of therapeutic period and change of medicine is required. Cold, influenza, pneumonia, bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), interstital lung disease, tuberculosis, lung caner, respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, and sleep apnea syndrome is also treatable.

Primary examinations

Bronchoscopy, thoracentesis and pleural biopsy, percutaneous lung aspiration and biopsy, pulmonary function test, bronchial challenge test, CT, PET-CT

As lung cancer took first place in South Korea’s cancer mortality rate, for early diagnosis, we are implementing low dose CT. By making the best use of modern medical devices such as bronchoscopy, percutaneous lung biopsy, CT, bone scan, PET-CT, we identify an accurate diagnosis and progression of the disease for lung cancer patients. We provide the best medical treatments to interstital lung disease patients, and help cure pulmonary fibrosis(as fibrosis causes the lung to stiffen, it gradually leads to respiratory difficulty and death), sarcoidosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis.