In May 2023, Kliniken Nordoberpfalz reported on its collaboration with Prof. Dr. med. habil. Thiha Aung, MHBA. The specialist in plastic and aesthetic surgery is a plastic reconstructive tumor surgeon and performs micro- and supermicrosurgery. Since spring 2023, he has been working at Tirschenreuth Hospital at regular intervals. His focus there is on plastic breast surgery, breast reconstruction after breast cancer and lymphatic surgery. The report emphasizes that such procedures are thus also possible in the northern Upper Palatinate and not only in large cities.
Breast centers have to work with a plastic surgeon. Through the collaboration, more patients who are cared for at the breast center at Klinikum Weiden can undergo plastic surgery. For breast reconstruction, Prof. Dr. Aung uses flap techniques, among others, for example with tissue from the abdominal wall. He visualizes the lymphatic vessels with high-resolution ultrasound and fluorescence imaging. Breast reconstruction and lymphatic surgery thus complement the surgical services of the breast center at the women’s clinic.
Dr. Bernd Hornbacher, chief physician of the women’s clinic, which spans the Weiden and Tirschenreuth sites, sees this as an expansion of treatment options for patients in the region.
The report also explains the connection with lymphedema. The sentinel lymph node procedure used by the women’s clinic lowers the risk of lymphedema in the arms and legs after surgery, but cannot rule it out completely. In lymphatic surgery, Prof. Dr. Aung connects lymphatic vessels to the blood vessel system so that congested lymph can drain. The aim is for swelling and symptoms to subside. Alongside breast surgery, lymphatic surgery is his second area of focus, a field that has so far been little researched internationally as well. Prof. Dr. Aung also works on it scientifically.
About his work in Tirschenreuth, Prof. Dr. Aung says that the hospital’s infrastructure is well suited to such complex operations. The women’s clinic, anesthesia and the surgical team work closely together.
On his career, the report mentions his studies and doctorate at the University of Göttingen, his habilitation at the University of Regensburg and positions in Barcelona, Ghent, Tokyo and Taiwan, at Mayo Clinic in Florida and at Harvard Medical School in Boston. At the Deggendorf Institute of Technology, Prof. Dr. Aung heads the Physician Assistant degree program. His research includes translational tumor research, which takes questions from the clinic into the laboratory and brings findings back into treatment, and lymphangiogenesis, the formation of new lymphatic vessels.
Read more in the original article from Kliniken Nordoberpfalz (in German).
