Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Rabenstein

Ever since 2007, Prof. Rabenstein has been among the absolute specialists for diseases of the entire digestive tract at the Diakonissen-Stiftungs-Krankenhaus Speyer. As head physician, he represents the main focuses of gastroenterology and oncology at the renowned Speyer Hospital.

Prof. Thomas Rabenstein has specialized primarily in treatments of the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine and liver. His medical specialties include all types of systemic diseases such as cancer. With his additional qualification in Gastrointestinal Oncology, Prof. Rabenstein is also a recognized expert in this field.

The specialist's high level of expertise begins with diagnostics. Here, Prof. Rabenstein and his team not only use the latest generation of in-house functional diagnostics, but also the equipment of the Speyer Radiological Center, where a multi-line computer tomograph and two magnetic resonance tomographs are available. There is also a daily exchange of information with the practice radiologists.

Diagnostics: high expertise

As head physician of the main focus Gastroenterology and Metabolic Diseases, Prof. Rabenstein also heads the Intestine Center Speyer and the Oncology Center Speyer. Both centers are recommended by the German Cancer Society. In addition, the close cooperation with an oncology practice located in the local medical center and the practice for radiotherapy allows for top-class interdisciplinary therapies in malignant diseases of the entire gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and liver.

Interdisciplinary competence

The range of services offered by Prof. Thomas Rabenstein also includes the treatment of metabolic diseases such as diabetes, particularly in the case of elevated liver levels. Here, the department is equipped with sonographic shear-wave elastography, which allows a distinction to be made between harmless liver level elevations and scarring with transition to liver cirrhosis without liver puncture.

Heartburn: 24-hour recording

A very special professional passion of Prof. Thomas Rabenstein is the topic reflux. The clinic has a special offer for patients with heartburn: With a 24-hour pH-metry, the team around Prof. Rabenstein records acid levels - similar to a long-term ECG - via a tiny probe. These are sent to a portable computer, and at the touch of a button the patient's symptoms and all relevant information are recorded. At the end, the data are compared with the recordings.

This way the team around the specialist can prove where the heartburn symptoms actually come from and assess the state of the disease very accurately. Patients benefit from the fact that Prof. Rabenstein is also very familiar with the possible consequences of reflux disease - for example, with Barrett's esophagus and early carcinomas. Prof. Rabenstein has personally treated and endoscopically resected over 1,000 early cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.

Endoscopy: masterful surgeries

The situation is similar with eosinophilic esophagitis: In the case of this chronic inflammatory disease, which is often accompanied by difficulties or pain when swallowing, the activities of the specialist range from diagnostics, the composition of a diet or individual medication to mostly endoscopic interventions.

For Prof. Rabenstein, innovative endoscopy plays a major role not only in diagnostics, but also in the various types of therapy: Whether it is polyps in the intestine or the treatment of cancer - endoscopic methods are convincing not least because they are gentle and allow for rapid recovery. In most cases, diagnostics and therapy are possible in a single procedure.

Prof. Thomas Rabenstein is also active in the scientific field: In 2008 he was appointed Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen Nuremberg, and has also rendered outstanding services as a member of expert groups and as an advisory board member of societies. For many years Prof. Rabenstein has been the 1st Chairman of the Saarland-Palatinate Society of Internal Medicine (SPIG).