Cardiology, Angiology, Hemostaseology and Internal Intensive Care Medicine

Anyone suffering from heart problems will find the best possible care in our cardiology department in Mannheim. As one of seven locations of the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung – DZHK), the department is specialised in the treatment of arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy, the surgical/interventional treatment of cardiac valve diseases, the implantation of cardioverter defibrillators as well as the electrical therapy of cardiac insufficiency. The clinic is among the top-ranked medical departments nationally and internationally especially in the diagnostic investigation of primary cardiac arrhythmia, the so-called ion-channel related disorders.

These include hereditary diseases such as the Brugada syndrome as well as the long and the short QT syndrome, which can lead to sudden cardiac death. Every year, an average number of 200 patients with Brugada syndrome are treated in Mannheim. This makes the Mannheim university teaching hospital one of the major centres in Europe specialising in this particular form of heart disorder.

In a case of arrhythmia, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) produce an electrical impulse which restores the normal heart rate and frequency. In conventional ICDs the electrodes transmitting the impulses are anchored in the heart. However, despite the indispensable and life-saving properties of ICDs, the electrodes can cause problems by breaking or triggering infections – risks which are significantly reduced by the use of subcutaneous defibrillators (SICDs). Here the electrodes are not placed in the heart but are fitted in front of the sternum; the defibrillator itself is implanted directly under the skin.

The cardiology department at the university hospital Mannheim is the German reference centre for SICDs and has accumulated extensive experience in this procedure.