Internal Medicine

The aims and purposes of internal medicine include the identification and treatment of acute and chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system, the abdominal organs, the blood-building system, the immune system and the metabolism.

The St. Vinzenz Medical Center offers its patients, general practitioners and other hospitals a wide range of medical treatments in the field of internal medicine.

• Gastroenterology / Hepatology with interventional endoscopy
• Oncology / Hematology with a central laboratory
• Noninvasive cardiology
• Specific internistic intensive-care medicine

There are a variety of medical treatments in the field of internal medicine. For instance, diagnostic and invasive procedures concerning the gastrointestinal system and the biliary tract are performed at St. Vinzenz'. By using modern video endoscopes it is possible to locate and staunch gastrointestinal bleedings. This specific method enables the surgeons to remove neoformations within the gastrointestinal tract such as adenoids or cancer. Biliary calculi, for example, that might jam the bile ducts and cause jaundice can be removed by using a balloon in combination with the video endoscope.

In addition to that we carry out various special examinations such as the video capsule endoscopy, allergy tests within the gastrointestinal tract and specific measurements within the esophagus in order to be able to locate functional disorders. The combination of the high quantity of examinations (over 5.000 procedures a year) and the surgeons' expertise (4 gastroenterologists) guarantees a continuously high quality of examinations.

The endoscopic array is complemented perfectly by the oncological focus at St. Vinzenz'. Patients with different types of cancer all receive optimal treatment (for instance chemotherapy or immunotherapy) after the diagnosis was made (including bone marrow harvesting). The treatment is conducted by two hemato-oncologists.

The diverse diagnostic array of our medical center is completed by using noninvasive cardiology which is supervised by a highly qualified cardiologist.

Our team, consisting of medical doctors and nursing staff cares for its patients on the three large internistic wards twenty-four-seven. Patients with a critical condition are cared for within the intensive care unit, in which we have access to modern equipment.

Patients as well as physicians from private practices can rely on the diagnostic abilities of our staff especially when it comes to difficult diagnostic or therapeutic issues.

Physicians who work in private practices can also use the diagnostic facilities within our medical center in order to be able to diagnose or treat other diseases such as:

• axial and paraesophageal henias
• achalasia
• esophageal spasm
• esophageal diverticula
• esophageal cancer

• esophagogastroduodenoscopy
• endosonography
• pH metry
• esophagus manometry
• radiological barium swallow examination
• computed tomography with 3D reconstruction

• Gastroscopies including the most efficient methods of staunching a bleed, chromoendoscopy, the treatment of varices, esophagusvarices-ligation-therapy, pneumatic dilatation in case of achalasia or esophageal spasm
• colonoscopies
• mucosa oxygenations in order to be able to diagnose intestinal allergies
• push-enteroscopies
• ERCP/PTCD
• pH-manometry for the diagnose of esophageal dismotility (such as spasms or achalasia)
• capsule endoscopy
• endosonography including fine-needle biopsy (pancreas, lymph node, adrenal gland etc), drainage of pancreatic cysts
• sonography (duplex sonography) / sonography with a contrast agent including an aimed organ puncture
• diagnostical bronchoscopy
• pelvic-biopsy
• cytological assessment of tumor smear tests concerning blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes

The wide spectrum of cardiological treatments includes:

• echocardiogram (ECG), exercise ECG, long-term ECG
• long-term blood pressure measurement
• color Doppler echocardiography (including stress echocardiography)
• lung function test

specific intensive-care medicine (3 intensive care physicians), including ventilations, cardioversions, treatment of a sepsis, monitoring of toxicopathies and hemorrhages.