School of Medicine

Chair of Surgery II

Surgical research aims to gain a better understanding of the aetiology of surgical conditions and to continuously improve and expand diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. This is achieved through both experimental research ‘in the test tube’ and clinical research ‘at the patient’s bedside’. Clinicians play a central role in this, as only they are constantly confronted with the most important questions through their daily interaction with patients.

Surgical research should be guided by clinical practice and concern for patients. The problem must determine the method, not the method the problem.

Various research methods are employed at the Chair of Surgery II. The department has its own ‘Molecular Oncology’ laboratory, which is equipped with all standard procedures for gene and protein analysis, including its own FACS system. Here, surgical research questions from the field of basic research are addressed. In some cases, we carry out these projects in collaboration with other research laboratories both in Germany and abroad.

Particularly in the area of clinical research, we maintain close collaboration with other surgical departments, for example with the Department of Surgery at Berlin-Buch in the investigation of ‘sentinel lymph nodes in colorectal cancer’. In the field of sepsis research, multicentre clinical trials are underway to investigate new approaches to sepsis treatment, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry (the ASIS trial).

The surgical component of the model degree programme in medicine comprises various elements. The theoretical foundations are integrated into ‘problem-based learning’ (PBL), the seminars held during the so-called ‘theory periods’, and the seminars during the clinical block placements (core blocks for surgical subjects KBOF 1 and KBOF 2).

We teach the practical fundamentals of surgery in the two compulsory core blocks, KBOF 1 and KBOF 2, as well as in compulsory-elective blocks.

The Chair holders of Surgery in the School of Medicine, clinical lecturers from affiliated hospitals, staff from the Office of Student Affairs, and students have formed a ‘Surgery Working Group’. The aim is to provide students with as consistent a level of knowledge as possible. Nevertheless, in individual cases, it is also up to students to take the initiative to get more involved, set their own priorities or request specific content.

Helios University Hospital Wuppertal is the teaching hospital of Witten/Herdecke University. It is the largest hospital in the Bergisches Land region and one of the largest comprehensive care hospitals within the Helios Kliniken group. The hospital has 1,051 beds and 26 specialist departments. Each year, the hospital admits around 50,000 inpatients and carries out approximately 100,000 outpatient treatments.

In addition to the standard range of general, visceral and vascular surgery, the Surgical Centre places particular emphasis on oncological surgery for gastrointestinal tumours.

We offer the full range of university-level oncological surgery, including surgery for malignant tumours of the oesophagus and the pancreas. Our Oncology Centre is certified by the German Cancer Society as a Visceral Oncology Centre specialising in pancreatic, oesophageal/gastric and colorectal cancer.