Inpatient and outpatient treatment

Inpatient admissions

Central to the CAMP program is the inpatient service. Typically the admissions include detailed physiologic recording during spontaneous breathing and assisted ventilation (a respirator) while the child is awake and asleep, in addition to assessment in varying activities of wakefulness — exercise, playing video games, doing school work, reading, with and without artificial ventilatory support. Many other complimentary tests from other pediatric disciplines are performed as well, all aimed to improve the care and management of these special children.

These studies assist in establishing the diagnosis, clarifying the nature of the physiologic compromise in multiple organ systems affected by the autonomic nervous system, providing comprehensive recommendations for ongoing ventilator or diaphragm pacemaker management, and designing interventions to improve the quality of life for these otherwise quite capable children.

An inpatient evaluation typically lasts from Sunday late afternoon to Thursday afternoon.

Outpatient evaluations

In addition to inpatient services, a limited out-patient service is offered, though near-exclusively for complicated brain tumor, craniofacial, or patients being considered for the removal of their tracheostomy tube or in need of bi-level non-invasive mask ventilation. Some of these complex patients benefit from airway fluoroscopy during sleep in the laboratory, during ongoing physiologic recording, to determine the site of airway obstruction.