EN
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are diagnoses people live with for years. Often the main problem is not the inflammation itself but that the treatment has been changed again and again by guesswork, remission does not hold, and nobody explains why. Prof. Dr med. Thomas Ochsenkühn works on exactly these cases — chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
Who he is and where he practises
Thomas Ochsenkühn is a specialist in internal medicine and gastroenterology and a professor. He is director of the clinic for gastroenterology, hepatology and gastrointestinal oncology at ISAR Klinikum in Munich, and since 2012 he has led its centre for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis there.
Before that he worked at the Großhadern university hospital in Munich, where in 1998 he set up a specialist outpatient clinic for patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease. He studied medicine in Regensburg, New York and Munich, and spent two years doing research at the University of California, San Francisco.
In 2011 he founded the European Crohn’s and Colitis Support foundation (ECCS), an organisation that advises patients, their families and doctors. He is the author or co-author of more than eighty scientific papers, mostly on Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer, and of a book on diet in lactose intolerance.
What he does specifically
His main field is chronic inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The work here turns on two questions — is the diagnosis certain, and why does the chosen treatment fail to hold remission. The current range of options includes anti-inflammatory drugs and biological therapy: treatment with antibodies that block specific steps in the inflammation.
The second is diagnostic endoscopy: examining the small and large bowel from inside and taking tissue for analysis. That, more than anything, answers the question of what is really happening. The third is hepatology — liver disease — and gastrointestinal oncology.
The centre works across disciplines: gastroenterologists and surgeons look after patients together, so the decision whether medication will do or an operation is needed is not made alone. Ochsenkühn belongs to the German Society for Gastroenterology, Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS), the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and the American Gastroenterological Association.
How we arrange an appointment
We translate your case history and send it to the clinic: colonoscopy findings, histology, a list of every medication already tried and how you responded to it — for this field that last point matters most. In return you receive a plan of examinations, timings and costs. The clinic invoices you directly, and an interpreter is present at the appointment.
This material is for information only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. Whether treatment is possible, what it will involve and what it will achieve can be determined only after an examination at the clinic in person.