Prof. Dr. med. Oliver Drognitz

Prof. Drognitz is the Clinical Director of the General and Abdominal Surgery Clinic of the St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe. Together with bowel surgery and thyroid surgery, the focus of the Department of Abdominal Surgery is on minimally invasive surgical procedures (laparoscopic surgery) and the surgical treatment of tumor and cancer conditions. Together with the Gastroenterology Clinic, the Abdominal Surgery Clinic in Karlsruhe has been certified by the German Cancer Society as a Bowel Cancer Center, which underlines the high degree of experience and the high quality of the specialists under Prof. Drognitz in the care of patients with intestinal conditions. So, ultramodern operating theaters in terms of instruments and equipment at the most up to date state of the art are available to Prof. Oliver Drognitz and his team at the St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe.

The specialists under Prof. Drognitz at the St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe utilize gentle minimally invasive surgical techniques whenever possible and medically required. For Prof. Drognitz’s patients for whom this type of keyhole surgery is performed, this means that only small incisions are made in the skin and less debilitating procedures are necessary. There is less post-surgical pain and the patient can be discharged home more quickly. The cosmetic effects (i.e. smaller scars) are also better. At Prof. Drognitz’s Abdominal Surgery Clinic in Karlsruhe, these minimally invasive procedures are primarily utilized for gallstone conditions, inflammations of the appendix, inguinal hernias and acid reflux, as well as for pathological changes in the large intestine, the rectum and in the liver and the adrenal glands.

The St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe rely on the close collaboration of the respective specialist clinics for the treatment of patients with malignant tumor conditions. Hence, weekly tumor conferences take place at the St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe, where, together with Prof. Drognitz and his colleagues in the Abdominal Surgery Clinic, specialists from the Oncology, Radiotherapy, Gastroenterology, Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Clinics lay down the strategy individually adapted to the patient for the diagnosis and treatment of his cancer condition. The latest scientific insights are always taken into consideration in compiling the “ideal” concept.

Even patients who suffer from a hernia, such as an inguinal hernia, incisional hernia or umbilical hernia, are treated by Prof. Oliver Drognitz at the St Vincentius Hospitals in Karlsruhe in accordance with the latest insights in surgical hernia care. Here, depending on the patient, various techniques are utilized, minimally invasive techniques or open surgery techniques, with or without the implantation of a mesh.