Prof. Dr. med. Pierre-Alain Clavien opens practice at Privatklinik Bethanien

The Management of Privatklinik Bethanien and the General Management of Swiss Medical Network are pleased to announce the opening of Prof. Pierre-Alain Clavien's new practice at Privatklinik Bethanien today. The former Director of the Clinic for Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich is an internationally renowned surgeon for liver, pancreas and biliary (HPB) surgery. Before joining the USZ, Prof. Clavien was head of HPB and transplant surgery at the renowned Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina (USA). In recognition of his many years of service, he was inducted into the prestigious US National Academy of Medicine (NAM), which directly advises the US government on health care issues. To date, he is the only surgeon outside the USA to have received this influential award.

Personalised medicine at the highest level
With the move to Privatklinik Bethanien and the opening of his own practice, Prof. Clavien will be able to offer patients and referring physicians the highest level of care in his field, including state-of-the-art technologies from precision surgery and robotics. Prof. Clavien has had a long and successful international career. In his new practice, Prof. Clavien will offer personalised treatments that take into account the latest research in the field. He will not only treat patients with supplementary insurance, but also accept patients with basic insurance who require complex interventions. In his therapies, Prof. Clavien consistently relies on interdisciplinary exchange with the doctors at Privatklinik Bethanien, the entire Swiss Medical Network and referring doctors. If necessary, he will also seek collaboration with academic centres in Switzerland and internationally.

Focus on cancer therapies
Prof. Clavien's focus is on benign and malignant diseases of the liver, gall bladder, pancreas and spleen. He has been involved in the development and acceptance of several complex procedures, for example the development of a new liver procedure for the treatment of multiple liver tumours (usually of colorectal origin) consisting of two consecutive operations, which he called ALPPS (Associating Liver Partition and Portal vein Ligation for Staged hepatectomy). This has dramatically increased the chance of curative resection for complex cancers while reducing the risk of postoperative liver failure. Together with colleagues from Germany and Argentina, he initiated the international ALPPS registry, which contributes significantly to patient safety.

Outcome quality in surgery
From his training in Toronto, Canada, through his young academic career at Duke University, USA, to his many years as clinic director of the USZ, one of Prof. Clavien's main focuses has been outcome research. He developed a classification of complications that bears his name and is used worldwide as a standard for reporting postoperative morbidity. The original description is the most cited surgical paper of the last 20 years. His research team then developed a morbidity index called the Complication Comprehensive Index (CCI®), which shows overall morbidity ranging from 0 (complication-free) to 100 (death). The CCI® was recently recognised at an international consensus conference as the gold standard for assessing morbidity.

Robotic surgery
Although Prof Clavien was critical of the value of robotic surgery in its early stages, he has become one of its most active promoters. Together with his Paris-based colleague Prof Olivier Soubrane, he will organise the 1rst International Consensus Conference on Robotic Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery (robot4HPB consensus conference) from 7-9 December 2023.

Read the full media release and much more background on Prof. Clavien here.