Viszeralmedizin 2023

Visceral medicine stands for diversity, but also for complexity, for interdisciplinarity, but also for discourse and controversy, for innovation, but also for the traditional and traditional. Research and further training are therefore essential in visceral medicine in order to be able to master the challenges of the subject in everyday clinical practice. In addition to rational considerations and decisions based on broad and deep knowledge, our patients also need our empathy and experience. That is why the motto of visceral medicine in 2023 is: With reason and gut feeling.

The congress is intended to reflect the great breadth and diversity of our subject, but at the same time to shed more light on three special focal points: inflammation, oncology and sustainability.

Inflammation

Most gastroenterological diseases are inflammatory diseases. But not every form of inflammation is pathological, inflammation can also be an expression of a constructive examination of our environment. The transitions between pathological and healthy inflammation can be fluid. The last few years have brought incredible insights into the microbiome in the intestine, but also into bile and saliva, and at the same time revealed huge gaps in knowledge: Are the various disease-associated changes a consequence or the cause of the diseases? What role does virome and the mycobiome, i.e. viruses and fungi in the intestine, also play? And above all: What therapeutic options do we have? So we learn that certain food components such Sweeteners can lead to significant and often harmful changes in the microbiome - and thus also build a bridge between nutritional medicine, metabolic diseases and inflammation research. Chronic inflammation is a common cause of tumor development, particularly in the liver and gastrointestinal tract.

oncology

Visceral oncology faces major challenges due to the increasing incidence of many gastrointestinal tumors. Due to the advances in local therapeutic methods in combination with modern systemic therapies, a curative approach can now be pursued not only in non-metastatic but also in selected metastatic stages. In addition, due to the continuous further development of therapy methods, constantly higher remission rates are achieved even in the presence of metastases. In order to achieve optimal treatment success, it is not only important to determine prompt, specialized and individualized therapy within the framework of the interdisciplinary tumor conference, but also to include the wishes and concerns of the person behind the disease.

sustainability

Sustainability of our medical actions is an ethical imperative - sustainability from the patient's point of view is a fast and precise diagnosis, a targeted therapy and a long-term improved well-being. Sustainability from a social point of view is an economical use of increasingly scarce resources - energy, material, but also money. Modern medicine - and in visceral medicine in particular endoscopy and surgical interventions - has a large ecological footprint. Our task is to reduce this footprint without compromising the quality of care. This requires rethinking many aspects of our everyday work and the willingness to question familiar processes anew.

Only through discourse and discussion can we achieve our goals of good visceral medicine: with reason and gut feeling.