Hospital Universitario Dexeus

Hospital Universitario Dexeus Barcelona is a general hospital which is rather unique to Spain: despite being a private hospital that does not belong to the Spanish national healthcare network, the center received the status of a university hospital, evidence of its quality care and contribution to research and reinforcing its leading role in the medical training sector.

What services does it provide?

The hospital is a global leader in oncology (particularly lung cancer, gynecologic cancers, urinary tract cancer), neurosurgery, gynecology (endometriosis, myoma), reproductive medicine, orthopedics and sports medicine. The hospital is also a major center for pediatric cardiac surgery and oncology and a leader in high-risk pregnancy and childbirth.

Why?

• A first-rate hospital in a range of specialties

Hospital Dexeus offers world-class medical care in 40 specialties, but its outstanding achievements in several specific specialties has earned the institution the status of university hospital. For example, Spain’s top gynecologists, obstetricians and specialists in reproductive medicine receive their professional training here. It was here where the first baby in Spain conceived through in-vitro fertilization was born in 1984. Since then, over 12,000 children have been born thanks to assisted reproduction techniques at this hospital alone. Today, thanks to pre-implant diagnostic techniques, Dexeus specialists are able to exclude the possibility of over 30 genetic diseases: it is no coincidence that Dexeus is home to Europe’s largest IVF lab. The Women’s Health department is also recognized as world leader in high-risk pregnancy and childbirth.

Dexeus also excels in a number of other areas including neurosurgery, oncology, pediatric heart surgery, and sports traumatology.

• Expert medical team

An extensive team of distinguished doctors, leaders in their fields, practice at the Hospital Dexeus. They include Dr. Rafael Rosell, a doctor recognized in the prestigious The Lancet medical journal as the world’s most highly acclaimed expert in the field of lung cancer; not only has he achieved the best outcomes in treating this extremely aggressive cancer, but he is also a prominent researcher who has made significant contributions to the fight against the disease, publishing over 600 articles in world’s most prestigious scientific journals (New England Journal of Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Oncogene, The Lancet, the Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology, etc.): the result of exceptional work focused primarily on translational research in search of more effective therapies for non-small-cell lung carcinoma.

Dr. Joaquim Bellmunt combines his work at the Dexeus University Hospital with his work as director of the Bladder Cancer Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Harvard (USA), leading several multi-center international immunotherapy trials in cancer of the prostate, kidney and bladder.

In the field of orthopedics and traumatology, the hospital boasts a team of leading professionals who treat world’s elite athletes: Dr. Enric Cáceres for spinal cord injury treatment, and Dr. Xavier Mir for hand microsurgery.

The Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Department is led by Dr. Raul Abella, one of the best pediatric cardiac surgeons in Europe with exceptional outcome and survival rates. Sixty-one percent of Dr. Abella’s patients are children less than a year old who require surgery with an average Aristotle Basic Complexity Score (ABC) of 8.1. The survival rate in these complex operations performed by the doctor is 98%, with extubation in less than 48 hours in 88% of cases: outstanding results in relation to complexity.

Finally, the hospital’s Neurosurgery Department, led by Dr. Gerardo Conesa, is a benchmark in drug-resistant epilepsy surgery and surgeries to treat other serious brain injuries.

• Scientific rigor meets the ultimate in comfort

As we mentioned, this is a private hospital that has earned the status of university hospital. This rare combination makes Dexeus unlike any other: all the first-rate medical treatment usually associated with the concept of a university center (based on research and training together with the highest degree of responsibility, reliability, and an interdisciplinary approach) is combined with the ultimate in comfort, design and care. Here’s just one example from the hospital’s Children’s Cardiac Surgery department. After Dr. Abella and his team perform heart surgery, young patients in the Intensive Care Unit are assigned a nurse and intensive care physician who care exclusively for the child. After extremely complex surgeries during which the heart is stopped, this level of postoperative care translates not only into comfort, but maximum safety as well.

For foreign patients

Dexeus brings its broad experience in receiving foreign patients through agreements signed with governments and charitable foundations to bear in order to address difficult cases, like limb lengthening and pediatric cardiac surgery.

A bit of history

Dexeus is named after Spain’s most famous dynasty of doctors and gynecologists. In 1935 Santiago Dexeus founded the Clínica Mater, the country’s first private maternity clinic, and 30 years ago the name was changed to honor the clinic’s founder. The center has always been a Spanish pioneer in fields like obstetrics and gynecology (for example, the hospital has used epidural anesthesia during labor since 1972), and the first child conceived through in-vitro fertilization in Spain was born here. The Gynecology, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine Department, directed by Dr. Peter N. Barri, president of the International Society of Fertility Preservation (ISFP), remains a leader on both a national and global scale, and giving birth at Dexeus is considered a status symbol. Today the hospital, which began as a maternity clinic, has become one of the largest general hospitals in Spain, hosting close to 150 international congresses and conferences every year.