Helmut Zühlke

Helmut Volkmar Zühlke (born March 26, 1948 on the North Sea island of Borkum ) is a German doctor and general, visceral and vascular surgeon. He has been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and the Hans-Kehr Prize.

Life

Helmut Zühlke was born on March 26, 1948 as a twin (Dr. med. Helmer Zühlke) on the North Sea island of Borkum as a child of Dr. med. Hans Zühlke and Dr. dent. Ruth Zühlke, née Weitze, was born. From 1954 to 1964 Zühlke attended elementary and secondary school on the island of Borkum. He received his Abitur in 1967 at the Queen Luise Foundation , Berlin. From 1967 to 1973 he studied medicine at the Free University of Berlin , where he passed the state examination in 1973.

Professional background

From 1973 to 1974 he was a medical assistant in the surgical clinic at the Westend Clinic of the Free University of Berlin with Director ES Bücherl and at the Internal and Urological Clinic (W. Brosig) at the Steglitz Clinic of the Free University of Berlin.

In 1973 he received his license to practice medicine and received his doctorate in the same year on the subject of "X-ray diagnostic lung findings during the flu epidemic 1969/70" at the Free University of Berlin.

In 1974 he started working as a research assistant at the Surgical Clinic and Polyclinic of the Steglitz Clinic under Prof. Dr. med. Hermann Franke. After Prof. Dr. med. H. Franke, the clinic was divided in 1975. In his further surgical training he worked as a ward doctor at the trauma surgery clinic with Prof. Dr. med. R. Rahmanzadeh, the Pediatric Surgical Clinic under Prof. Dr. med. J. Waldschmidt and at the Clinic for General, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery with Prof. Dr. med. R. Haring. In 1979, Zühlke was recognized as a specialist in surgery and appointed as a university assistant, and in 1981 he was appointed senior physician for general, vascular and thoracic surgery.

In 1983 he acquired the sub-field “Vascular Surgery” and completed his habilitation with the work “Transplantation and duct occlusion of the pancreas as a therapy concept for chronic recurrent pancreatitis”, for which he received the Herrmann Kümmel Prize from the Northwest German Surgeons Association .

Zühlke recognized the value of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) as early as 1981 and was the first surgeon to publish the possibility of intraoperative use of transluminal angioplasty (IOTA) in the specialist journal “Der Chirurg”. ¹ Further studies on the value of the PTA were published in the following years. ^2,3,4,5 Among other things, in interdisciplinary cooperation with angiologists (FJ Roth) and radiologists (E. Zeitler), he led a multi-center study financed by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology to elaborate on the importance of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (GAMS- Study).

In 1985 Zühlke was appointed C2 professor at the Free University of Berlin. In 1989 he became senior physician in charge and permanent representative of Häring at the Surgical Clinic of the Steglitz Clinic and published numerous scientific and clinical papers and textbook chapters on general, vascular and thoracic surgery. ^{6,7,8,9,10 In} 1989 Zühlke carried out the first successful simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplant in West Berlin at the Steglitz Clinic in cooperation with the Urological Clinic (Prof. Dr. med. H. Huland). ^{11 In} 1990, Zühlke created a classification for abdominal adhesions, which was also recognized internationally. ^12.13

As early as 1988 a monograph on the treatment of deep vascular infections appeared together with BM Harnoss: Septische Gefäßchirurgie ( Septic Vascular Surgery) by Verlag Blackwell Berlin . ^{14 In} 1994 the monograph Septic Vascular Surgery was reissued. ^{15 In} 2019, the continuation of the monograph “Septic Vascular Surgery” was now published as “Septic Vascular Medicine” by Thieme Verlag Stuttgart. ¹⁶

In 1991, Zühlke was appointed chief surgeon at the Kemperhof Municipal Hospital in Koblenz and was given a teaching position at the University of Mainz while continuing his teaching position at the Free University in Berlin and from 2000 also at the Charité Berlin . From 1993 Zühlke was the head physician at the “Russischer Hof” clinic in Bad Ems.

On February 1, 1994 he was appointed chief surgeon at the Evangelical Hospital of the Paul Gerhardt Foundation Wittenberg in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, the former largest Protestant hospital in the GDR. In 1996 there was recognition for the focus on "visceral surgery", in 1997 the recognition of the additional designation "phlebology" and in 2009 the additional recognition of the additional designation "drug tumor therapy". ^17.18

From 1995 to 2016, Zühlke was chairman of the specialist and examination committee for vascular surgery of the Saxony-Anhalt Medical Association .

From 1998 to 2018 Zühlke was a consultant at the Coswig Heart Clinic. After retiring from Paul-Gerhardt-Stift Wittenberg in 2016 for reasons of age, he was acting chief physician for the restructuring of the Clinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery / Phlebology until 2018. ¹⁹

In the course of his professional and scientific activity, Helmut Zühlke received several honors and prizes. He is an honorary member of the Tumor Center Saxony-Anhalt ²⁰ and the Central German Surgeons Association ²¹ . In 2017 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon by Federal President Joachim Gauck . ^22.23.24

Main areas of activity

Operations of all degrees of severity in abdominal, vascular and thoracic surgery
all oncological surgery of the gastrointestinal tract
liver surgery including metastasis therapy
endocrine surgeries
entire spectrum of vascular surgical revascularizations (open vascular surgery)
Drug tumor therapy for gastrointestinal tumors (chemotherapy)
Phlebology
150 kidney transplants

Honors, awards, chairs

1983: Hermann Kümmell Prize
1995 to 2016 chairman of the specialist and examination committee for vascular surgery of the Saxony-Anhalt Medical Association.
1998 and 1999 chairman of the Surgeons Association of Saxony-Anhalt
2013-14: President of the Central German Surgeons Association
2015: Honorary member of the Tumor Center Saxony-Anhalt ²⁰
2016: Hans Kehr Prize ^25.26
2016: Honorary member of the Central German Surgeons Association ²¹
2017: Awarded the Federal Cross of ^{Merit 22,23,24}

Congresses in Lutherstadt Wittenberg

1998 8th Surgeons ' Congress Saxony-Anhalt in Lutherstadt Wittenberg Leading topic: "Surgical inventory"

1999 9th Surgeons' Congress Saxony-Anhalt in Lutherstadt Wittenberg Main theme: "Innovation 2000"

2000 International Abraham Father Symposium (250th anniversary of death) in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in cooperation with Prof. Mössner, University of Leipzig and Prof. Fleig, MLU Halle-Wittenberg Leading topic: "Surgery of the pancreas"

2000 1st Wittenberg Conference of Evangelical Hospitals in Germany Leading theme: "Responsibility of Diakonie within the framework of the health structure 2000"

2002 2nd Wittenberg Conference of Protestant Hospitals in Germany Main themes: "Digital Revolution", "What does the DRG system bring?"

2004 3rd Wittenberg Conference of Evangelical Hospitals in Germany Leading themes: "The modern hospital of the future", "Reintervention after lumen opening measures"

2006 4th Wittenberg Conference of Protestant Hospitals in Germany Leading themes: "New structures in surgery", "Surgery of the elderly"

2008 5th Wittenberg Conference of Evangelical Hospitals in Germany Leading theme: "Health Service Sector 2008 - Opportunity or Farewell to Quality, Further Education and Progress"

2010 6th Wittenberg Conference of Evangelical Hospitals in Germany Leading themes: "Industrialization in the healthcare system", "Gastrological / viscerosurgical / oncological cooperation"

2012 7th Wittenberg Conference of Protestant Hospitals in Germany Leading theme: "Evidence-based medicine - empirical medicine: contradiction or addition?"

2013 8th Wittenberg Conference of Evangelical Hospitals in Germany Leading themes "Generational problems in surgery", "Surgical oncology?"

2014 7th Congress of the Central German Surgeons Association in Lutherstadt Wittenberg Leading theme: "Think differently"

2015 9th Wittenberg Conference of Protestant Hospitals in Germany Leading theme: "Think for yourself"

2019 10th Wittenberg Conference of Protestant Hospitals in Germany Leading theme: "Infections in vascular medicine"

Individual evidence

¹ Zühlke HV, Sörensen R, Häring R, Konradt J. Intraoperative open transluminal angioplasty (IOTA). Surgeon 1981 Apr; 52 (4): 265-70.

² Zühlke HV, Sörensen R, Häring R, Linder S. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty before specimen exposure in stage IV of chronic AVK. Langenbeck's Archives for Surgery 1982; volume 356: 267-277

³ Zühlke HV, Häring R. Complications of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Zentralblatt Chirurgie 1984; 109: 449

⁴ Zühlke HV. Notes on the history of PTA and its surgical understanding. Vascular Surgery 2006; 11 (6): 447-448

⁵ Müller N. Long-term results of intraoperative iliac angioplasty in the therapy of peripheral arterial occlusive disease of the multi-daylight type by hybrid interventions inaugural - dissertation Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg 2009

⁶ Zühlke HV. Neck (chap. 23). In: Häring R, Zilch H (eds.). Diagnosis and differential diagnosis in surgery and related areas, Capman and Hall Weinheim 1995; Volume 1, 2nd edition,

⁷ Zühlke HV neck (without thyroid gland). In: Häring R (ed.). Surgery. de Gruyter Berlin & New York 1994; 4th edition

⁸ Zühlke HV, Häring R. Therapy of ascites - surgically. In: Paquet, KJ (ed.). Portal hypertension. Karger Basel, 1994; 596-607

⁹ Zühlke HV. Can intuition be learned in surgery? German Society for Surgery - Communications from the Society 1999, 28: 352-60

¹⁰ Zühlke HV. Infections in vascular surgery. In: Luther B (ed.). Compact knowledge of vascular surgery. Springer Verlag Heidelberg 2011; 2. revised Edition

¹¹ Berliner Zeitung (BZ), issue 127/22, year 113, Saturday, June 3, 1989, A2032A

¹² Zühlke HV, Lorenz EM, Straub EM, Savvas V. Pathophysiology and classification of adhesions. Langenbeck's Arch Chir Suppl II Verh Dtsch Ges Chir. 1990: 1009-1016

¹³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6746566/

¹⁴ Zühlke HV, Harnoss BM. Septic vascular surgery. Blackwell Wiss.-Verlag Berlin 1988; 1st edition

¹⁵ Zühlke HV, Harnoss BM, Lorenz EPM. Septic vascular surgery. Blackwell Wiss.-Verlag 1994; 2nd Edition

¹⁶ Zühlke HV. Septic vascular medicine. Thieme Verlag Stuttgart 2019

¹⁷ Sauer R, et al. Adjuvant versus neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer: the German trial CAO / ARO / AIO-94. Colorectal Disease 2003; 5: 406-15

¹⁸ Sauer R, et al. German Rectal Cancer Study Group. Preoperative versus Postoperative Chemoradiotherapy for Rectal Cancer. N Engl J Med 2004; 351: 1731-40

¹⁹ http://www.klinikum-dessau.de/aktuelles/news-details/article/klinikum-dessau-erweitert-chirurgisches-spektrum/197.html

²⁰ http://www.steffenwilbrandt.de/fileadmin/images/inhalte/Gestaltungen/Broschueren/Festschrift_131210_fin.pdf

²¹ https://www.mdcv.de/mdcv-ev/ehrenverbindungen/

²² https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Berichte/Bekanntgabe-Ordensverleihung/1707-Verleihungen.html

²³ https://www.wittenbergersonntag.de/artikel/8239/bundesverdienstkreuz-fuer-prof-dr-helmut-zuehlke-

²⁴ http://www.borkumer-zeitung.de/epaper-13-06-2017/

²⁵ https://www.wittenbergersonntag.de/artikel/4548/auszeichnung-fuer-chefarzt-prof-dr-zuehlke

²⁶ http://bdc.formes-service.de/servlet/Public?action=dokumentDownload&docid=22227

personal data
SURNAME	Zühlke, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Zühlke, Helmut Volkmar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German doctor and general, visceral and vascular surgeon
DATE OF BIRTH	March 26, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Borkum