Page 74 - November2026LifeInNaples

NCH Launches
Interventional Pulmonology Program
with First Complex Airway Procedure
Paul Hilz
Naples Comprehensive Health
President & CEO
aples Comprehensive
Health (NCH) has reached
Nan important milestone in
advancing specialized respiratory care in
Southwest Florida with the successful
completion of our first complex
central-airway procedure through
our new Interventional Pulmonology
Program. This first procedure represents
an important step in expanding the
74
"Specialized treatment for complex airway conditions has
historically required patients in Southwest Florida to travel to
medical centers outside our region."
specialized care we can provide to include precise incisions in the scar tissue,
patients in our community, including dilation of the narrowed airway and other
advanced treatment for complex airway techniques selected according to the
and pleural conditions that previously location, length and complexity of the
required some patients to travel outside stenosis.
Southwest Florida. The procedure represents the first
The procedure treated a patient with complex central-airway stenosis case
recurrent symptomatic benign tracheal completed at NCH and the first
stenosis, a condition in which scar therapeutic case for the health system’s
tissue narrows the windpipe and can new Interventional Pulmonology
make breathing increasingly difficult. Program.
Symptoms can include shortness of Interventional pulmonology is
breath, coughing and wheezing and a subspecialty requiring additional
may sometimes be mistaken for more fellowship training following pulmonary
common respiratory conditions. and critical care medicine. It uses
Using interventional bronchoscopic advanced minimally invasive procedures
techniques, Vanessa Hoytfox, MD, to diagnose and treat disorders involving
Director of the new NCH Interventional the lungs, central airways and pleural
Pulmonology Program, along with the space.
NCH endoscopy team accessed the Our Interventional Pulmonology
narrowed section of the patient’s Program expands NCH’s capabilities
airway and treated the obstructing in advanced bronchoscopy for lung
scar tissue from within the trachea. nodules and mediastinal disease, as well
The minimally invasive approach as treatment for benign and malignant
restored the airway without an airway obstruction, tracheal stenosis,
external incision. The patient central-airway tumors and complex
responded well and returned home pleural conditions.
the same day. At NCH, we are continuing to
For patients and families, the build a health system capable of caring
significance goes beyond the procedure for increasingly complex conditions.
itself. Specialized treatment for complex This is exactly how NCH continues
airway conditions has historically to advance care in our region: by
required patients in Southwest Florida recruiting physicians with highly
to travel to medical centers outside our specialized training and giving them the
region. With the establishment of this technology and resources needed to bring
program, that level of expertise is now sophisticated treatment options to our
available here at NCH. community.
Bronchoscopic treatment of benign It also reflects the continued evolution
tracheal stenosis is performed primarily of health care in Southwest Florida. The
at only select hospitals with dedicated launch of this program is another step in
interventional pulmonology expertise, that journey.
like NCH now offers. Treatment can
www.LifeInNaples.net