Professor Roland Goldbrunner

Roland Goldbrunner was born in Straubing, in the federal state of Bavaria (Germany), in 1966. After completing his studies at the medical faculties of the universities of Regensburg and Würzburg, he was awarded his doctorate in medicine in 1993. In 2001 Dr Goldbrunner received the title of associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Würzburg. The start of his professional career was linked to the clinical department of neurosurgery at the University of Würzburg and to a neuro-oncology laboratory in Washington, D.C. (USA). The next stage of his career was the neurosurgical clinic of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2009 Professor Goldbrunner accepted an offer from the University of Cologne to take up the post of Medical Director of the Department of General Neurosurgery and Managing Director of the Centre for Neurosurgery.

The doctor's areas of specialisation

• microsurgical operations on the brain;
• brain surgery using intraoperative fluorescence-guided navigation (tumours, vascular malformations of the brain).

The clinic and the Centre for Neurosurgery

The clinic and the Centre for Neurosurgery headed by Professor Roland Goldbrunner, which brings together the Department of General Neurosurgery Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery — are leading, certified specialist institutions of international standing, with outpatient and inpatient departments.  The intensive care unit is equipped with several ventilators. The doctors and staff have extensive experience of working with foreign patients, since half of all patients come from abroad.

Certified by the German Cancer Society, the neurosurgical clinic and Centre of the University Hospital Cologne are part of the Center for Integrated Oncology CIO Koeln, which at the end of 2019 joined the state-wide network of the leading cancer centres of North Rhine-Westphalia — the Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf — CIO ABCD.

In September 2016 the Centre for Neurosurgery was awarded international certification by the expert committee "European Standards of Excellence for Training in Neurosurgery" of the European Union of Medical Specialists (U.E.M.S.).

The three operating theatres are equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, including an intraoperative Brainsuite MRI scanner, and are linked to one another by a multimedia network; every year they are used for around 2600 operations. The neurosurgeons work together with a specially trained team of neuroanaesthetists from the Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine.

The heart of every operating theatre is the surgical operating microscope made by the world-renowned company Zeiss, which makes it possible, using fluorescence-guided tumour surgery, to differentiate the affected tumour cells precisely and to spare healthy brain tissue. Complete removal of solid brain tumours by means of this procedure reduces the likelihood of recurrence. The use of intraoperative and fluorescence-based vascular imaging is an important technical aid in the treatment of vascular pathologies (arteriovenous angiomas, aneurysms) of the brain and spinal cord.

The neurosurgeons have various systems at their disposal, used according to the type of intervention:

Ultrasonic aspirator (ultrasonic scalpel) / Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator (CUSA)

With the ultrasonic scalpel the neurosurgeon can remove a tumour with microscopic precision while sparing healthy tissue and blood vessels; it is used mainly in operations for tumours of the brain and spinal cord and on the peripheral nerves.

Neuronavigation

High-precision computer navigation systems make it possible to locate pathological foci with pinpoint accuracy and are used to plan and carry out surgical access to them. This procedure is complemented by intraoperative sonography (ultrasound).
For spinal operations, surgeons have at their disposal a high-tech system that converts the optical image into an electronic one, allowing examination during the operation and transmitting three-dimensional data to the navigation system.

Endoscopy

Various endoscopic systems make it possible to perform so-called "keyhole" operations, which are used in particular for diseases and tumours of the cerebral ventricles and the pituitary gland, as well as for spinal conditions. Endoscopic procedures are often combined with neuronavigation.

Intraoperative monitoring

Continuous computerised electrophysiological recording provides information about the function of the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system throughout the operation. Specific brain functions or nerve pathways are also identified by targeted electrical stimulation. In this way it is possible to avoid the risk of neurological deficits such as paralysis or sensory disturbances after surgery.

Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) comprises a set of electrophysiological techniques that make it possible to monitor the functional state of the nervous system continuously in order to minimise damage to it. Specific brain functions or nerve conduction pathways are identified by means of electrical stimulation. In this way it is possible to avoid the risk of postoperative neurological deficits such as paralysis or sensory disturbance.

Navigated brain stimulation

The location of the brain areas responsible for such important functions as movement and speech is not the same in everyone. In some cases, for example for the precise planning of surgery for low-risk brain tumours, it is useful for the surgeon to know the exact position of these areas in advance.
Neurosurgeons can determine this non-invasively before the operation using the latest technology, navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS). Doctors obtain comparable results with functional MRI (fMRI), which in special cases is additionally performed at the research centre in Jülich.

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Remote consultations with Professor R. Goldbrunner

msp group germany offers services for arranging a remote consultation for patients who wish to obtain the expert opinion of Professor R. Goldbrunner.

Please note that online consultations of any kind provided by staff of public medical institutions are contrary to the telemedicine regulations currently in force in Germany. Remote consultations are permitted only for the ongoing care of patients who have been examined in person by the doctors and who have personally signed a telemedicine service agreement and written consent to the processing of their personal data. This does not mean that doctors at public hospitals are prohibited from issuing written opinions.

Once you have provided us with translations of your medical reports, laboratory test results, histology findings, radiology data (MRI, CT, X-ray, etc.), chemotherapy and radiotherapy protocols, the recommendations of your treating doctors and so on, you should formulate all your questions, concerns and wishes, and describe your current symptoms.

The doctor will always require an interim clinical summary with a precise account of the history of the main and concomitant conditions, as well as information about the patient's current clinical status and complaints.

Please note: all questions for the doctor must be clearly formulated.

The cost of a remote consultation — 700-850 euros depending on the volume of medical documentation provided and the time the professor spends studying and assessing it.

Processing of the request — within 8-14 working days after the complete set of documents has been assembled, including a professional translation of them into German.

The approximate prices quoted do not include the written translation of medical reports, test results and findings into German.

The cost of the remote consultation stated above also includes our services of:

• assessing whether a remote consultation is appropriate;
• preparing the set of documents;
• drawing up the enquiry to the specialist, including the translation of all your questions for him;
• technical support (e.g. downloading imaging scans);
• translating the written opinion into your language.

Advantages of a remote consultation

A remote consultation is an opportunity to:

• save money on flights, tickets, hotels and the cost of an in-person consultation;
• save the time spent waiting for an appointment with a world-renowned specialist;    
• save on the cost of a medical interpreter
• hand over to us the routine work of communicating with doctors and translating medical documentation;    
• obtain recommendations from leading German clinicians based on the achievements of modern evidence-based medicine;    
• learn about alternative and gentler treatment methods;  
• avoid unnecessary surgery or excessive diagnostic testing.

A remote consultation is provided after payment of the invoice-contract, exclusively on the basis of an informative, up-to-date and complete set of documents and good-quality images.

The details of and requirements for a remote consultation are set out in full here.