About the Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology, Gastroenterology and Oncology at St. Joseph Hospital Haan
The Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology, Gastroenterology and Oncology at the St. Joseph Hospital Haan offers the full range of services in these medical fields. The department specializes in the diagnostics and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, pathologies of the lungs and other organs of the respiratory system, gastrointestinal diseases and cancers. The medical facility has modern diagnostic rooms where patients undergo modern instrumental examinations and endoscopic procedures on the organs of the digestive tract and respiratory system. As for therapeutic methods, the department's doctors successfully cure many diseases with the help of well-chosen drug therapy regimens. In complex clinical cases, the specialists perform low traumatic endoscopic therapeutic procedures. The department's doctors provide patients with high-quality medical services and always do their best to make the patient feel comfortable during the entire treatment process. The department is headed by Dr. med. Henning Henke.
The department's team consisting of highly qualified gastroenterologists provides prevention, diagnostics, conservative and interventional treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. Modern endoscopic equipment is widely used in clinical practice, which helps doctors not only to determine the localization of the pathological process, but also to conduct effective treatment. For example, when performing an endoscopic examination, doctors can simultaneously carry out therapeutic interventions for pathological conditions such as bile duct stones, bowel polyps, stomach and intestinal stenosis, gastrointestinal bleeding.
The department has three special video systems with high-performance processors and modern image processing technology. These systems can be connected to endoscopes for gastroscopy, colonoscopy and bronchoscopy. They allow the doctors to get high-quality images of the internal organs. This plays an important role in colorectal cancer screening, as the equipment makes it possible to visualize and safely remove even very small colon polyps. Thus, the department's state-of-the-art equipment allows patients to avoid traumatic open surgery and the associated long postoperative recovery.
One of the key focuses of work of the medical facility is also cancer treatment. Cancer patients are treated in the specialized Cancer Center of the Kplus Group. All diagnostic and therapeutic measures comply with the strict requirements of the German Cancer Society. The treatment is based on an individual approach to each patient. Every week, the center holds interdisciplinary tumor boards, during which individual treatment regimens are developed for the department's patients. The focus of oncologists is on patients with bowel cancer, which is considered the third most common cancer in the world. The specialists have vast experience in managing patients with this diagnosis and successfully cope even with the advanced stages of cancer, significantly prolonging the patients' lives. The patients with early-stage bowel cancer have the best chances for a full recovery. In such cases, an endoscopic procedure is often sufficient to resect the neoplasm, which may be supplemented by conservative therapies. In the advanced stages of bowel cancer, abdominal surgeons are involved in the therapeutic process to resect the tumor and, if necessary, a part of the affected organ. Surgical treatment is usually supplemented with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy to destroy any remaining cancer cells in the body. The patients who have suffered bowel cancer need regular follow-up examinations to prevent oncology recurrence.
A team of competent cardiologists do their best to take care of the department's patients. Their tasks include the diagnostics and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Many patients come to the department with coronary artery stenosis, which carries a high risk of acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infarction. As a result, the department has implemented a special DMP KHK program (approved by the German Federal Ministry of Health), which was developed with the participation of qualified doctors and scientists of the country. The purpose of this program is to improve medical care for patients with chronic heart disease.
The department has at its disposal all non-invasive diagnostic methods. A modern 3D ultrasound system is used for the diagnostics and treatment of coronary heart disease. In addition, such tests as stress echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography are widely used here. To treat cardiac arrhythmias, single- and dual-chamber pacemakers and defibrillators are implanted in cooperation with the Department of General Surgery. The department also offers the services of an outpatient clinic, which specializes in monitoring the functioning of the implanted devices. The range of services is complemented by the implantation of event recorders for a suspected arrhythmia and right heart catheterization, which allow the doctors to carry out differential diagnostics and treatment of concomitant lung diseases.
In the field of pulmonology, the treatment of bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is of particular interest. The therapeutic offer also includes the treatment of pneumonia, acute and chronic bronchitis, malignant lung tumors and other pathologies in this field. The department has a high-tech Sleep Laboratory, where patients can undergo diagnostics and treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders. An important focus of the laboratory's work is home and long-term mechanical ventilation, which improves respiratory function in patients with weakened respiratory muscles, a severe lung disease or a deformed thorax.
The department's range of diagnostic and therapeutic services includes:
- Diagnostic options
- Gastroenterology
- Endoscopy
- Gastroscopy
- Colonoscopy
- Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
- Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy and drainage
- Functional diagnostics
- Short-term and long-term pH-metry (acidity measurement in the esophagus and stomach)
- Esophageal manometry (esophageal pressure measurement)
- Hydrogen breath test for lactose intolerance, lactose malabsorption
- Hydrogen breath test for small intestinal dysbacteriosis
- Ultrasound diagnostics
- Abdominal ultrasound scanning
- Soft tissue ultrasound scanning
- Contrast-enhanced ultrasound scanning
- Color Doppler imaging of the abdominal vessels (portal vein, renal arteries, mesenteric vessels)
- Ultrasound-guided diagnostic punctures (liver tissue, cysts, tumors)
- Endoscopy
- Cardiology
- Electrocardiography
- Ergometry
- Spiroergometry
- Echocardiography, including stress echocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography
- Implantation of event recorders to detect rare heart rhythm disturbances
- 24-hour blood pressure monitoring
- Pericardial puncture (pericardiocentesis)
- Monitoring the functioning of pacemakers and defibrillators (within a special outpatient clinic)
- Pulmonology
- Assessment of lung function with exercise and at rest, blood gas test
- CO2 level monitoring during breathing (capnography)
- Diagnostics within the framework of the Sleep Laboratory: screening for sleep disorders (for example, obstructive sleep apnea)
- Allergy testing
- Bronchoscopy, including fine needle biopsy
- Diagnostic bronchoalveolar lavage
- Gastroenterology
- Therapeutic options
- Gastroenterology
- Therapeutic gastroscopy
- Therapeutic colonoscopy
- Therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
- Endoscopic removal of tumors of the mucous membrane of the esophagus and stomach (mucosectomy)
- Endoscopic removal of polyps
- Endoscopic removal of gallstones
- Endoscopic implantation of stents in the bile ducts and pancreatic duct
- Endoscopic dilatation for esophageal stenosis
- Endoscopic implantation of esophageal stents (for example, in tumors)
- Endoscopic hemostasis
- Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
- Cardiology
- Implantation of single- and dual-chamber pacemakers
- Implantation of defibrillators
- Pulmonology
- Mechanical ventilation for severe respiratory diseases, including home mechanical ventilation
- Weaning from mechanical ventilation
- Therapeutic bronchoscopy
- Therapeutic bronchoalveolar lavage
- Pleural drainage and pleurodesis
- Gastroenterology
- Other medical services
Photo of the doctor: (c) St. Josef Krankenhaus Haan