Dealing With Dismotility: New Program Emphasizes Collaborative Care; Pediatric Insights, Gastroenterology Fall 2019

Dealing With Dismotility:
New Program Emphasizes Collaborative Care

In January, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition welcomed Vibha Sood, MD, as its newest faculty member and director of the new Motility and Neurogastroenterology Program for pediatric patients with motility or functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Dr. Sood is fellowship-trained in pediatric gastroenterology from Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. Upon completion of her pediatric gastro-enterology fellowship, Dr. Sood joined the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

While at Georgetown, Dr. Sood developed an interest in motility and functional gastro-intestinal disorders in children which eventually led her to pursue additional training in motility disorders. She completed a year of advanced pediatric motility and neurogastroenterology training at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. As part of her research, Dr. Sood had the opportunity to study the spectrum of gastrointestinal and motility disorders in patients with a hypermobile type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

“Pediatric motility and neurogastroenterology is a rapidly progressing field, with exciting emerging technologies for diagnosis and management of patients with dysmotility. My fellowship training exposed me to a wide variety of complex gastrointestinal motility disorders, including colorectal disorders, in children,” says Dr. Sood.

Dr. Sood brings with her to UPMC Children’s proficiency in performing colonic, antro-duodenal esophageal and anorectal manometry procedures, along with interpretation and application of these studies in the clinical realm.

Neuromodulation is an exciting and emerging field within neurogastroenterology, explains Dr. Sood, who has gained experience in taking care of patients who have received various neuromodulation devices including sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) for intractable constipation, electro auricular device for functional gastrointestinal disorders, and gastric electrical stimulation (gastric pacemaker) for gastroparesis.

Disorders Treated in the Motility and Neurogastroenterology Program
• Achalasia
• Aerodigestive disorders
• Anorectal malformations
• Colonic dysmotility
• Dysphagia and feeding disorders
• Functional gastrointestinal disorders
• Gastroparesis
• Hirschsprung’s disease
• Intestinal pseudo-obstruction
• Intractable constipation and encopresis
• Pre- and posttransplant motility evaluation
• Rumination

Designing a Motility Program
Dr. Sood’s program allows patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders in need of specialized diagnostics and procedures to remain at UPMC Children’s for their entire spectrum of care. It eliminates the need for long trips and time away from home, improves continuity of care, and provides for seamless communications and patient discussions — all within the confines of UPMC Children’s.

“Our goals are to build the program into a center of excellence that provides comprehensive evaluation and treatment of pediatric patients with complex motility and functional gastrointestinal disorders, and to build a multidisciplinary care service with colorectal surgery, intestinal rehabilitation, the intestine transplant program, and the aerodigestive center for the co-management of patients with esophageal, intestinal, and colonic dysmotility,” says Dr. Sood.

In the long term, Dr. Sood’s goal for the program is to make UPMC Children’s a regional and national referral center for patients
with complex motility and functional gastro-intestinal disorders and to provide training in these disorders to new generations of gastroenterology specialists.

Opportunities for Collaboration
The breadth of services and care that is provided at UPMC Children’s will allow for many collaborative efforts in the future between Dr. Sood, her gastroenterology colleagues, and others in areas such as colorectal surgery, small bowel transplant,
and intestinal rehabilitation programs.

“A motility program like we are building will allow additional care and expertise to be provided to some of our more complex patients, including our intestinal transplant patients. I am looking forward to developing collaborations with my colleagues in that program, and to helping care for these patients who need long-term, complex follow-up,” says Dr. Sood.
She also plans to help develop a multidiscip-linary approach to care for patients with longstanding, severe constipation issues or complicated anorectal malformation disorders.

To refer a patient to the Motility and Neuro-gastroenterology Program, please contact the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at 412-692-5180.