The Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition provides inpatient and outpatient diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of gastrointestinal, liver and nutritional disorders in infants, children and adolescents.
Intestinal symptoms and diseases include abdominal pain, constipation, gastroesophageal reflux, diarrhea and malabsorption syndromes, inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal bleeding. One of the Section’s physicians leads a team especially dedicated to the treatment and support of families with inflammatory bowel disease.
Liver diseases include hyperbilirubinemia, viral and autoimmune hepatitis, liver failure, neonatal cholestasis and metabolic liver disease. A member of this Section is a hepatologist and the Medical Director of the Liver Transplant team.
Nutritional diseases include failure to thrive, feeding disorders, short bowel syndrome and obesity. Evaluations and treatment include specialized enteral and parenteral nutrition on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. A member of this Section co-directs the Healthy Weight Awareness Program.
Through the Gastroenterology (GI) Diagnostic Laboratory, the Section provides procedural services including upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, intraesophageal pH probe monitoring and small bowel, liver and rectal biopsies. Other services include breath hydrogen testing for children with suspected lactose intolerance and breath testing for H. Pylori infections. Section specialists are skilled at therapeutic endoscopic procedures including foreign body removal, polypectomy, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement and esophageal dilatation for esophageal strictures.
In addition, the Section conducts breath hydrogen testing for children with suspected lactose intolerance. The clinicians in this section are also researchers, who give presentations at national and international meetings. Their research interests include liver cell transplantation, liver transplantation, and acute liver failure.
The liver transplant program directed by Burckhardt Ringe, MD and Humberto Soriano, MD, is a multispecialty, multidisciplinary team providing comprehensive care for the child with end stage, severe, or life-threatening liver or metabolic disease.
Humberto E. Soriano, MD
Chief, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
Medical Director, Liver Transplant Program
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Medical School: Catholic University, Santiago, Chile
Special Training:
Residency: Hospital for Sick Children, London, England; Catholic University, Santiago, Chile
Fellowship: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Staff Appointment: 2002
Special Interests: Liver transplantation, pediatric liver diseases, acute liver failure, liver cell transplantation, autism and GI disorders
Appointments: 215-427-6778
Alan D. Baldridge, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Medical School: Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA
Special Training:
Residency: Boston City Hospital, Boston, MA
Fellowship: Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA,
The Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston, Boston, MA
Staff Appointment: 2004
Special Interest: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease
Appointments: 215-427-6778
Kathy D. Chen, MD
Medical Director, Healthy Weight Awareness Program
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Medical School: University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
Special Training:
Residency: Weill Medical College of Cornell University,
New York, NY
Fellowship: Weill Medical College of Cornell University,
New York, NY
Staff Appointment: 2004
Special Interest: Gastroesophageal reflux, childhood constipation, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), liver disease, child obesity, food allergies
Appointments: 215-427-6778
FAX: 215-427-6782
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