Cooperation with Dr. Ulf Kessler in Lausanne

Visceral surgeon Dr. Ulf Kessler has been at Hirslanden Clinique Cecil as an attending physician for more than a year, and has his practice at CMD Lausanne. With his extensive experience in visceral surgery, he is a competent partner for Swiss1Surgery with Dr. Jörg Zehetner, Professor (USC), in the special field of reflux surgery, as well as surgical intervention with the LINX Reflux Management System.

With the cooperation of Dr. Ulf Kessler and Swiss1Chirurgie, the range of services for the use of the LINX Reflux Management System can now also be offered in Lausanne. In this way, we are extending our radius of action to western Switzerland in the interests of our patients.

In March 2022, the collaboration between Dr. Jörg Zehetner and Dr. Ulf Kessler successfully treated a patient with the LINX Reflux Management System for the first time at the Hirslanden Clinique Cecil in Lausanne. The 45-minute operation was minimally invasive and the patient was discharged from the hospital after two days without any symptoms.

What’s new?

Dr. Zehetner has already performed 350 surgeries with the LINX Reflux Management System in Bern since 2015. This surgery is considered for all patients with typical reflux symptoms, small to moderate diaphragmatic hernia and with normal esophageal function. Now this surgical technique, which has been tried and tested worldwide for ten years, is also available to patients in French-speaking Switzerland.

With Dr. Ulf Kessler, an ideal partner for such interventions was found. Dr. Ulf Kessler was in training for a period of three years to specialize in visceral surgery at the Hirslanden Klinik Beau-Site in Bern, and has already worked with Dr. Jörg Zehetner – as the responsible tutor for Upper GI Surgery and Bariatric Surgery.

During this time, the results of the first 150 operations with the LINX system were also published in Bern. Dr. Kessler’s scientific collaboration was a key factor in the success of the project. In the Hirslanden Center for Digestive Diseases in Lausanne, an ideal partner was found for Western Switzerland, especially since important accompanying specialties such as endoscopy and gastroenterology/hepatology are also on site there.

Interested patients and affected relatives from Western Switzerland can contact Dr. Kessler directly in the future. With his team on site in Lausanne, Dr. Kessler will then perform the assessment and, in collaboration with Swiss1Surgery with Dr. Zehetner, perform any surgical procedures using the LINX Reflux Management System.

Through this collaboration, the good care during the clinic phase and also the follow-up by an experienced specialist can be guaranteed.

The cooperation between Swiss1Surgery and Dr. Ulf Kessler is groundbreaking for this field. This means that the expertise of Dr. Jörg Zehetner, who has the most experience with the LINX system in Switzerland to date, can also be made available to patients in French-speaking Switzerland.

For patients with special questions, the Swiss1Surgery practice in Bern and the GGP Gastroenterology Group Practice with its special functional diagnostics naturally remain a direct and good point of contact.

For further questions we gladly refer to the website www.swiss1chirurgie.ch

1st EMEA GERD Symposium in Hamburg on 11 and 12 July 2019

Johnson&Johnson called for a symposium and the gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) specialists came. Also present was Professor Dr.med. Jörg Zehetner, who enjoys an exceptionally good reputation both in science and in the clinic as a globally recognised expert in minimally invasive surgical reflux methods.

Johnson&Johnson called for a symposium and the gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) specialists came. Also present was Professor Dr.med. Jörg Zehetner, who enjoys an exceptionally good reputation both in science and in the clinic as a globally recognised expert in minimally invasive surgical reflux methods.

The symposium was all about gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, which often causes persistent or recurrent acid regurgitation, severe heartburn or unpleasant burning in the stomach in its chronic course and thus complicates patients’ everyday lives. A proven method for surgical intervention is the LINX Reflux System, which has now been used in the clinic for ten years. This is a small chain consisting mainly of titanium-coated magnets that is placed around the end of the oesophagus in a minimally invasive procedure. With this system, the regurgitation of gastric acid is prevented, while all other physiological functions such as food intake, regurgitation of air or even vomiting remain unhindered by the LINX system.

Dr. Jörg Zehetner is one of the top 5 reflux specialists in Europe and is one of the nine leading experts in the field at Johnson&Johnson. These alone were good reasons to invite Dr Zehetner to speak at the symposium in Hamburg. In front of more than 85 participants, the specialist explained the excellent possibilities of LINX in his lecture and continued these thoughts in the workshop “Complex cases and complication management in reflux surgery”.

For those who do not know what to make of the abbreviation EMEA, please note: EMEA stands for “Europe, Middle East, Africa” and thus summarises the regions in which Johnson&Johnson is particularly involved with its expertise and products such as the LINX Reflux System. Of course, the commitment also extends to the global arena and supports the scientific and practical efforts of the respective medical experts.

For Dr Jörg Zehetner as well as for the other participants at the 1st EMEA GERD Symposium in Hamburg, the occasion was a good reason to gather the best and latest experiences in reflux surgery and thus define further standards for the benefit of patients.

In the attached picture spread, we show the best moments of the intensive work at the EMEA GERD Symposium 2019 in Hamburg.