Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine - DKD HELIOS Clinic Wiesbaden

About the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at DKD HELIOS Clinic Wiesbaden

The Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the DKD HELIOS Clinic Wiesbaden offers the full range of services for the diagnostics and treatment of various diseases in young patients. The focus is on the children with inflammatory bowel disease, short bowel syndrome, chronic liver diseases, celiac disease, congenital malformations of the kidneys and urinary tract, type 1 diabetes mellitus and other pathologies. The department's specialists have at their disposal state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment for a comprehensive assessment of the health status of children. The medical facility has modern laboratories, an endoscopy unit for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, as well as diagnostic rooms with advanced devices for imaging studies, including X-ray, ultrasound and MRI. The doctors working in the department care not only about high-quality medical care, but also about the fact that young patients feel as comfortable as possible during treatment. The specialists also devote enough time to personal communication with parents so that they clearly understand what kind of disease their child is suffering from, and what effective methods are recommended for treatment. The department is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Markus Knuf.

Pediatric gastroenterologists working in the department provide comprehensive diagnostics and treatment of diseases of the digestive tract and liver. Of particular interest is medical care for children with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, short bowel syndrome, celiac disease and chronic liver pathologies, including hepatitis B and C. At the stage of diagnostics, the specialists conduct laboratory, instrumental and endoscopic diagnostic examinations, the results of which allow the attending physician to make an accurate diagnosis and determine the stage of the disease. The treatment regimen is elaborated for each child individually. Whenever possible, the specialists of the department use only conservative treatment, namely drug therapy with innovative drugs. In especially difficult cases, therapeutic endoscopic procedures are performed.

Children often suffer from kidney and urinary tract diseases. The department employs specialized doctors, who using a wide range of diagnostic studies (ultrasound, urodynamic tests, MR urography, etc.), identify disorders in the functioning of the kidneys and urinary system, as well as conduct effective treatment to eliminate them. In addition to taking a complex of medications, biofeedback (BFB) is used in children with impaired bladder function. The BFB technique allows restoring self-regulation of physiological functions of the body and demonstrating high efficiency in the treatment of bladder dysfunction.

Another important focus of the medical facility is the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children. The classical methods of treating pathology are diet therapy and insulin therapy. The department also provides insulin pump therapy, which makes the child's life much easier. An insulin pump is an electronic device that infuses insulin according to the pre-programmed individual settings. The department conducts training sessions on lifestyle modification in diabetes mellitus for both young patients and their parents. During these training sessions, the patients learn about the features of their disease and methods of its control. The young patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus are also provided with nutritional consultations, since a diet must be followed to compensate for the pathology.

The department's therapeutic offer is complemented by the treatment of allergic diseases, pathologies of the lungs and other organs of the respiratory system, morbid obesity in children. The health of young patients with these ailments is in the safe hands of the specially trained pediatricians who have many years of clinical experience. The specialists conduct a comprehensive examination, after which they prescribe the required therapeutic measures.

The department specializes in the diagnostics and treatment of the following diseases in children:

• Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis)
• Functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (including dysphagia, constipation, encopresis)
• Short bowel syndrome
• Chronic liver disease (including hepatitis B and C, congenital copper metabolism disorders, care for children after liver transplantation)
• Celiac disease
• Morbid obesity
• Congenital malformations of the kidneys and lower urinary tract
• Bladder dysfunction
• Chronic inflammatory joint diseases
• Bronchial asthma
• Atopic dermatitis (neurodermatitis)
• Food allergies and food intolerances
• Type 1 diabetes mellitus
• Other diseases

The department's key clinical focuses include:

• Diagnostics
  • Sonography, including functional testing
  • Endoscopic examinations of the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine (gastroscopy, colonoscopy), including tissue sampling for further study (biopsy)
  • Percutaneous liver biopsy
  • Bladder and joint puncture, lumbar puncture
  • Endoscopic airway examinations (laryngoscopy, tracheoscopy, bronchoscopy, diagnostic bronchoalveolar lavage)
  • Daily pH metry
  • Hydrogen (H2) breath test for lactose, fructose, sorbitol, glucose intolerance to diagnose malabsorption syndrome
  • Instrumental diagnostics of the kidneys and urinary tract
    • Urodynamic tests to assess bladder function
    • Ultrasound examinations and computed tomography of the kidneys
    • Scintigraphy
    • Magnetic resonance urography
  • Instrumental diagnostics of the gastrointestinal tract
    • X-ray scanning
    • Ultrasound scanning 
    • Magnetic resonance imaging
    • Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
  • Diagnostics of the cardiovascular system
    • ECG, including stress ECG and daily ECG monitoring
    • Echocardiography
    • Magnetic resonance imaging
    • 24-hour and long-term blood pressure measurement
  • Diagnostics of the endocrine organs
    • 72-hour and long-term blood glucose measurement
    • Functional endocrine testing
  • Pulmonary function testing
    • Spirometry
    • Body plethysmography
    • Determination of NO concentration in the exhaled breath
  • Allergic tests, including provocation tests
• Treatment
  • Drug treatment
  • Intravenous antibiotic therapy for cystic fibrosis, pyelonephritis in newborns and early childhood
  • Endoscopic therapeutic procedures for gastric and colon polyp removal, dilatation of gastrointestinal stenoses
  • Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
  • Therapeutic bronchoalveolar lavage
  • Biofeedback for the treatment of bladder dysfunction
  • Insulin therapy, including insulin pump therapy for diabetes mellitus
• Other medical services