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The Department of Adult and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich offers all the possibilities of modern surgery for treating heart disease, including a heart transplant. The department's team of surgeons admits both adult patients and children. The department annually performs more than 3,500 operations, including minimally invasive ones. The most common diseases in the clinical practice of cardiac surgeons include heart failure, coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmias, and heart valve and aortic pathologies. The department's operating rooms have all the resources for efficient and safe heart surgery. The patients' health is in the safe hands of a highly qualified team of doctors and nursing staff, numbering more than 155 employees. The main task of surgeons is to provide an optimal treatment based on the very latest advances in modern medicine. At the same time, the specialists always show a humane attitude towards a patient, considering his individual needs and wishes. The Head Physician of the department is Prof. Dr. med. Christian Hagl.
One of the most demanded surgical procedures in the department is coronary artery bypass grafting. Such an operation is usually indicated for patients with severe coronary artery disease, in which the myocardium suffers from a lack of oxygen and nutrients. The goal of the surgical intervention is to create a new blood flow path around the affected artery. The department's cardiac surgeons perform coronary artery bypass grafting both with and without a heart-lung machine (on a beating heart). Open surgery with the use of a heart-lung machine is considered to be quite complex, since it requires a thoracotomy and a temporary cardiac arrest. The duration of this surgery is 3-5 hours. Cardiac surgeons try to perform coronary artery bypass grafting without connecting a patient to a heart-lung machine whenever possible, since the risks of such an intervention are quite low, and rehabilitation is much easier.
An integral part of the department's clinical practice is the surgical treatment of heart valve pathologies (stenosis and insufficiency). In appropriate clinical indications, the affected heart valve can be reconstructed, and in severe pathological changes, cardiac surgeons perform an operation to replace the valve with a prosthesis. The department's specialists use high-quality mechanical and biological prostheses. The optimal type of prosthesis is selected individually. Each of the prostheses has its own advantages and disadvantages: a mechanical prosthesis has a long service life (20-30 years), but patients with such a prosthesis need to take anticoagulants for life; when implanting a biological prosthesis, there is no need to take drugs for life, but this prosthesis cannot boast of a long-term service life (up to 15 years). Young patients are usually indicated for the implantation of a mechanical prosthesis, and the elderly have a biological one implanted.
The department's cardiac surgeons successfully perform operations for heart rhythm disturbances (arrhythmias). In many cases, arrhythmias are amenable to drug control, but if such a therapy is ineffective, the department's cardiac surgeons prescribe an operation for a patient. If the heart rate is low, a pacemaker implantation surgery is performed. If the patient's heart rate is too high, a defibrillator implantation is indicated. With more than 600 operations to implant pacemakers and defibrillators every year, the specialists of the medical facility have rich experience in this field. Cardiologists, including pediatric ones, are usually also involved in the therapeutic process. The department also pays particular attention to the replacement and removal of infected or damaged electrodes on pacemakers and defibrillators. Surgeons perform more than 120 such surgical interventions annually, which are highly complex operations. Atrial fibrillation (one of the most common heart rhythm disturbances) is often treated with radiofrequency ablation. The technique is minimally invasive and involves the use of catheter-based techniques. Radiofrequency ablation is performed jointly with cardiologists.
In the field of pediatric cardiac surgery, special attention is paid to the repair of congenital and acquired heart defects. Cardiac surgeons, together with pediatric cardiologists, offer expectant mothers the chance to undergo fetal echocardiography, which makes it possible to detect congenital heart pathology even in the womb (before the 20th week of pregnancy). After the baby is born, an echocardiogram is repeated. Heart catheterization procedures and CT or MRI scans can also be performed, after which the final decision is made on the surgical intervention. Pediatric cardiac surgeons often perform heart valve replacement interventions with homografts and Contegra valve conduits (mechanical valves are used very rarely). Surgical treatment of heart diseases in children is carried out in accordance with the current recommendations of professional societies and current clinical protocols.
The department's range of surgical options includes:
Higher Education
Clinical Practice
Academic Career
Prizes, Awards and Honors
Memberships in Professional Societies
Photo of the doctor: (c) LMU Klinikum
According to the Focus magazine, the University Hospital of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is regularly ranked among the best medical institutions in Germany!
The hospital is the largest multidisciplinary medical facility, as well as a leading research and training center in Germany and Europe. The hospital is proud of its bicentenary history and tirelessly confirms its primacy at the national and international levels. The outstanding quality of medical care is complemented by highly productive research activities, thanks to which many effective diagnostic and therapeutic methods, saving people’s lives, have been presented in medical practice.
The medical facility includes two main buildings, Grosshadern and Innenstadt. The hospital has 29 specialized departments, 53 interdisciplinary centers, 11 institutes, and many sections. More than 500,000 patients are treated here every year, which indicates the hospital's excellent reputation. A large and highly professional medical team, consisting of 1,800 doctors and 3,300 nursing staff, works for the benefit of patients. The hospital has 2,000 beds to accommodate patients.
The hospital's infrastructure deserves special attention: advanced diagnostic equipment that allows doctors to detect the slightest pathological changes in the human body, the latest operating rooms with highly efficient monitoring systems, robot-assisted surgical systems that facilitate sparing operations, and proper postoperative care.
Excellent technical resources and highly professional medical staff are undoubtedly the hospital's pride, but the medical facility also pays attention to the patient's comfort and to a humane attitude toward their life situation. When providing the necessary medical care, doctors and nursing staff always show a friendly attitude, inform patients in detail about the upcoming diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, gladly answer all questions of interest to patients, and provide moral support during the therapeutic process.
The hospital has many prestigious quality certificates, including a DIN EN ISO 9001 certificate, an IQM certificate, an endoCert certificate, certificates from the German Cancer Society (DKG) for treating various types of cancer, the German Cardiac Society (DGK), the German Society for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery (DGOU), etc. Thus, patients can count on the best possible treatment outcome due to the use of the most effective and, at the same time, sparing therapeutic techniques.
Photo: (с) depositphotos
The patients of the University Hospital of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich live in comfortable, spacious, single and double patient rooms with a modern design. Each room is equipped with an ensuite bathroom with a shower and toilet. The furnishing of a standard patient room includes a comfortable bed, the position of which can be adjusted using the remote control, a locker for storing personal belongings, a TV, and a telephone. Also, if desired, you can connect to the Internet. In addition, patients can opt for enhanced-comfort rooms, with a safe, a fridge, and upholstered furniture.
The hospital has an excellent infrastructure. The medical facility’s area houses a bank, ATMs, a hairdresser, shops with a wide range of food, drinks, newspapers, magazines, and personal hygiene items, play areas for children, and a beautiful garden for walking, etc.
The patient and his accompanying person are offered a daily choice of three menus, including a vegetarian one. If you are on a specific diet for any reason, you will be offered an individual menu. Please inform the medical staff about your dietary preferences prior to the treatment.
Standard rooms include:
Religious services are available upon request.
Your accompanying person may stay with you in your room or at a hotel of your choice during the fixed program.
You may stay at a hotel of your choice during an outpatient program. Our managers will help you to choose the best option.
The hospital offers a full range of laboratory tests (general, hormonal, tests for infections, antibodies, tumor markers, etc.), genetic tests, various modifications of ultrasound scans, CT scans, MRI and PET/CT, angiography, myelography, biopsies, and other examinations. Treatment with medications, endoscopic and robotic operations, and stereotaxic interventions are carried out here, modern types of radiation therapy are also used. The hospital offers patients all the necessary therapeutic techniques.
Patients with benign and malignant neoplasms of various localizations, pathologies of arteries and veins, herniated discs, osteoporosis, congenital and acquired pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, benign and malignant pathologies of the mammary gland, and other pathologies.
Over 1,700 highly qualified doctors work at the hospital.
