The Clinic mainly serves patients with peritoneal malignancies. It also specializes in the surgical treatment of abdominal and pelvic tumors, as well as the entire range of general surgery procedures, and participates in the Hospital's after-hour services.
The main conditions that may cause peritoneal malignancies include pseudomyxoma peritonei, peritoneal mesothelioma, other primary peritoneal carcinomas, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer and peritoneal sarcomatosis.
Nowadays, peritoneal malignancies are treated with cytoreductive surgery, which aims at the almost complete excision of the macroscopically visible tumor and is performed with typical peritonectomies.
The typical peritonectomies include:
- Epigastric peritonectomy
- Left and right subphrenic peritonectomy
- Left and right side-wall peritonectomy
- Greater omentum and spleen excision
- Lesser omentum excision
- Cholecystectomy and omental bursa excision
- Pelvic peritonectomy, which includes excision of the rectosigmoid and the internal female genitalia
- Excision of other abdominal organs, aiming at almost complete cytoreduction Even if the cytoreduction is complete, without a trace of macroscopically visible tumor, a tiny tumor will almost always still remain and can only be removed with local/regional chemotherapy. This forms part of cytoreductive surgery, either in the form of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or in the form of early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC).