He is one of the world’s most renowned neurosurgeons – and he heads one of the largest clinics of its kind in Europe: Professor Dr Peter Vajkoczy is regarded as a leading authority on brain surgery. When his bestseller “Kopfarbeit” was published in 2020, the publisher Droemer Knaur wrote: “He treats up to a hundred patients from all over the world across his three wards and, together with his team, performs up to five or six operations a day – mostly for strokes, brain tumors, bypasses and spinal disorders.” The renowned Director of the Department of Neurosurgery with a focus on Pediatric Neurosurgery (CVK) gave the Leading Medicine Guide an insight into a fascinating and extremely complex world.
Charité Universitätsmedizin is one of Berlin’s oldest hospitals and largest employers. With 3,099 beds and a staff of 17,615 (figures from 2021), Charité is in fact the largest medical institution in Europe. The Department of Neurosurgery there is particularly renowned internationally, where complex disorders of the nervous system are treated to an outstanding standard – cerebrovascular diseases, brain and skull base tumors, as well as disorders of the spine, the cerebrospinal fluid system, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Functional neurosurgery and pain management are also covered at the Charité’s Department of Neurosurgery. The clinic can look back on an impressive five thousand operations annually. Clinic Director Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoczy has made a name for himself particularly through complex operations. Originally from Munich, he came to Berlin after academic posts in Mannheim and Heidelberg.
Leading Medicine Guide: Professor Vajkoczy, which treatments do you perform most frequently? What, in particular, have you specialized in?
Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoczy: I perform around fifty per cent of procedures on the brain and the other half on the spine. That amounts to a total of around 800 operations per year for me. In the field of brain surgery, we carry out complex microsurgical procedures such as vascular surgery—including aneurysms, angiomas and bypasses—as well as tumor operations such as gliomas and skull base tumors. In the field of spinal surgery, this includes treatments for decompression, stabilization and correction of the spine in cases of degenerative diseases, inflammation and tumors.
Leading Medicine Guide: In your view, what factors determine the success of a procedure?
Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoczy: The success of these procedures depends on a large caseload, extensive experience with these sometimes rare cases, and an outstanding interdisciplinary infrastructure – all of which the Charité offers to a particularly high degree.
Leading Medicine Guide: Your professional career has included positions at, among others, LMU Munich, Mannheim University Hospital, Heidelberg University Hospital and, finally, Charité in Berlin – the largest hospital in Europe. What have you taken away from your previous, very important posts?
Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoczy: At the Institute for Surgical Research at LMU Munich, I received my training in high-level scientific work related to clinical surgical practice. There, for example, I learnt how important continuous scientific work is for the further development of our discipline, both in the laboratory and at the patient’s bedside. And I came to understand how research and work at the operating table can be reconciled. In Mannheim and Heidelberg, I received a broad clinical training in neurosurgery and had the honor of being trained by outstanding figures in our field. I also had the necessary freedom here to further expand my theoretical and practical knowledge.
Leading Medicine Guide: And what medical advantages do you see at the Charité?
Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoczy: The Charité offers the advantage of a very high caseload, which means that here it is possible to gain a high level of experience and expertise with rare and often complex clinical presentations and to further develop the field. The size of the Charité is also its strength. The hospital is also characterized by high academic standards. The opportunities for scientific work in our field are unique here.
Leading Medicine Guide: What are your main areas of focus at the Charité’s Department of Neurosurgery, Professor Vajkoczy?
Prof. Vajkoczy: Thanks to its unique scale, the Charité allows us to focus on more areas than is usually the case. These include vascular neurosurgery, tumor neurosurgery – specifically gliomas and skull base tumors – spinal surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, the treatment of movement disorders, and epilepsy surgery.
Leading Medicine Guide: Thank you very much for speaking to us, Professor Vajkoczy!
Incidentally, the Charité can look back on a history spanning over three hundred years: around 1710, Frederick I, then King of Prussia, had a plague house built on the outskirts of Berlin amid the raging epidemic. Later, it was used as a hospice for the elderly, as a ‘workhouse for the homeless’ and as a maternity facility for women who had become pregnant out of wedlock. Today, of course, times are very different!
You can contact Prof. Dr Peter Vajkoszy directly via his profile page in the Leading Medicine Guide. The Department of Neurosurgery is located across three Charité campuses: the Charité Mitte Campus, the Virchow-Klinikum Campus and the Benjamin Franklin Campus. You will find a university neurosurgical outpatient clinic at all three locations. Please also note: As the clinic covers a wide range of areas and offers a comprehensive range of treatments, specialist consultation hours are divided by specialism.
