Freiburg doctor receives renowned Adolf Kußmaul Prize!

Freiburg doctor receives renowned Adolf Kußmaul Prize!

Freiburg im Breisgau, Deutschland - On July 4, 2025, PD Dr. Lukas Sturm from the Freiburg University Hospital awarded the renowned Adolf Kußmaul Prize. The price endowed with 5,000 euros was awarded during the 35th anniversary of the Southwest German Society for Gastroenterology. This award recognizes the outstanding achievements in clinical research, especially in an area that affects many people: liver cirrhosis.

liver cirrhosis is a serious illness that often leads to high blood pressure in the portal vein, with complications such as ascites or even life -threatening bleeding. Sturm was recognized for his research on the risk assessment of patients who benefit from a special procedure, the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (tips). This process helps to reduce the pressure in the portal vein by creating an artificial short circuit between two blood vessels in the liver, which significantly improves the chances of survival of those affected. Sturm emphasizes that the developed risk assessment makes this procedure safer.

innovative risk model and its findings

Sturm and his colleague, Prof. Dr. Dominik Bettinger, led a comprehensive study in which eight German clinics took part. In this study, which included 1,359 patients, the Freiburg Index of Post-Tips Survival (FIPS) was used for risk assessment. The goal was to develop a reliable forecast for the complication risks according to the TIPS procedure. The results are promising and enable more targeted decisions regarding the suitability of the procedure and offer more individual aftercare. According to Sturm, the findings offer valuable orientation to improve the chances of survival.

fips has proven to be particularly useful. A separate study, including 1,133 patients with acute decompensation of the cirrhosis, was significant results. The 90-day mortality was 17.7%, and even 30.8% of the patients died within one year. The FIPS predicted the mortality independently, which underlines its high predictive accuracy compared to established scores, such as the Clif-C ad score and the Meld 3.0. In patients with variceal bleeding, the FIPS showed significantly better prediction capabilities.

Future view and challenges

The relevance of Dr. Sturm is made by his superior, Prof. Dr. Robert Thimme, underlined, who praised the award as recognition for excellent clinical research. Despite these successes, there are still challenges: the FIPS requires additional validation studies to further demonstrate its effectiveness. However, the previous results hope that this index can represent a decisive tool for the prognosis of mortality in patients with acute decompensation of cirrhosis.

Research and the associated discussions once again show how important applications in medicine are that not only offer technical solutions, but can also sustainably improve the life of the patients. In the area of cirrhosis of the liver, there is still a lot of potential for new findings and treatment approaches, and the work of PD Dr. Lukas Sturm will surely help to address these challenges.

For further details on the awarding of the Adolf Kußmaul Prize, read the detailed notification on the website of the University clinic Freiburg as well as the comprehensive studies on risk assessment in cirrhosis on PMC