Pierre-Alain Clavien
Prof. Dr. med.

Das Wichtigste in Kürze

Professor Clavien ist ein international bekannter Spezialist für HPB-Chirurgie und Lebertransplantation. Seine chirurgische Ausbildung erhielt er in Genf und Basel, seine Spezialisierung in HPB-Chirurgie vervollständigte er an der University of Toronto in Kanada. Danach leitete er die HPB-Chirurgie und Lebertransplantation an der Duke University in den USA. Im Jahr 2000 übernahm er die Leitung der Klinik für Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie am Universitätsspital Zürich. Das Swiss HPB-Zentrum entstand unter seiner Ägide. Er hat hier mehr als 1000 Leberresektionen durchgeführt. Professor Clavien ist derzeit im Council der European Surgical Association (ESA). Im Jahr 2014 erhielt er die Ehrenmitgliedschaft des American College of Surgeons und wurde zum “Professeur Associé” am Hôpital Paul Brousse, Université Paris Sud, ernannt. Prof. Clavien wurde im Herbst 2020 als erster Chirurg ausserhalb der USA als «Member» in die «National Academy of Medicine» der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika aufgenommen. Er hat bisher über 600 wissenschaftliche Arbeiten publiziert und auch mehrere Bücher geschrieben.

Key Skills

• Highly specialized medicine (ALPPS, NanoKnife)
• Complex liver and pancreatic surgery
• Minimally invasive (robotic) HPB and liver surgery
• Liver tumors and colorectal liver metastases
• Biliary surgery, gallbladder cancer and cholangio carcinoma
• Liver transplantation, living liver transplantation and split liver transplantation

Academic Degrees

Clinical and Academic Appointments

Memberships: National and International Committees & Societies: >50

• European Surgical Association (ESA)
• American Surgical Association (ASA)
• European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA)
• International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA)
• National Academy of Medicine (USA)
• International Surgical Group (ISG)
• Société Suisse de Chirurgie (SSC)
• International Society of Surgery (ISS/SIC)
• American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)
• Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT)
• American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS)
• International Association of Surgeons & Gastroenterologists (IASG)
• The British Journal of Surgery Society (BJS)
• Swiss National Institute of Research (SNF)
• Association for Research in Surgery, Swiss Society of Surgery (ARS)
• International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA)
• Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMW)
• Académie Française de Chirurgie (Paris, France)
• The Transplantation Society (TTS)
• Association for Academic Surgery and Perioperative Medicine (AASPM)
• Swiss Transplantation Society (STS)
• Governor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS)
• International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS)
• Académie Nationale de Médecine, France
• Académie Nationale de Chirurgie, France

Key Areas of Research

• Organ preservation, liver ischemia-reperfusion injury and liver regeneration, and pathogenesis of cancer, as well as outcome research with publications in Science, Nature, PNAS, Annals of Surgery, Gastroenterology, Lancet, and NEJM.
• His laboratory made the discovery of serotonin as a key mediator of liver regeneration and pathogenesis of cancer (Science 2006).
• Dr. Clavien has developed with the Wyss Zurich (Liver4Life) team a novel perfusion machine to extend the viability of liver tissue outside of the body up to one week. This technological advance will make it possible to treat the liver before transplantation and should save the lives of many patients with severe liver diseases and formerly inoperable liver cancers in the future (Nature Biotechnology 2020).
• Dr. Clavien has also developed a simple and widely used system to evaluate complications after surgery, which hold his name – The Clavien-Dindo Classification – and developed and validated the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI®).

Research Funding

• He is continuously holding competitive grants including NIH and Swiss National Foundation since 1996
• More than 35 competitive research grants (> 10 Million $)

Publications

• Over 690 peer reviewed articles in high ranked international journals
• The impact of his research might be highlighted with a H Factor of 127 and a Citation Index of over 84’264
• He published the most cited article in surgery over the past 20 years (cited  > 19,800 times)  –  Classification of surgical complications: A new proposal with evaluation in a cohort of 6336 patients and results of a survey. Ann Surg 2004; 240: 205-213.
• He is Editor of five books; With the very popular books “Medical Care of the Liver Transplant Patient” and the “Atlas of Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery” (2nd Edition, 2016)

Special Appointments

• Honorary Diploma of the European Board of Surgery for HPB Surgery
  and Liver Transplantation
• Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons (FACS Hon)
• Honorary Fellowship of the American Surgical Association (ASA Hon)
• Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS Engl)
• Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS Ed)
• Honorary Member, Académie Nationale de Médecine, France
• Honorary Member, Académie Nationale de Chirurgie, France
• Member of the National Academy of Medicine USA
• Board of Director and Council: British Journal of Surgery Society
• Editor: Patient safety in surgery (online Journal)
• Associate Editor: Annals of Surgery and Journal of Hepatology
• Editorial Boards: Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Transplantation, Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, Surgery, Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation, Advances in Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition, Hepato-Gastroenterology, HPB Surgery, World Journal of Surgery, Der Chirurg, Gastroenterology Research and Practice, Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery, Journal of the Italian Society of Surgery (SIC), Updates in Surgery, Digestive Surgery, European Surgical Research

Special Lectures and Visiting Professorships: >350

• Longmire Lecture: The Longmire Surgical Society, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA, 2006.
• Tom E Starzl State of the Art Lecture: Annual Congress of the American Association for the Study of the Liver (AASLD), Boston, USA, 2009.
• Martin Allgöwer Lecture: “Surgical leadership: Do we need it and can we measure it?” 46th World Congress of Surgery WCS, Bangkok, Thailand, 2015.
• Morrison Schroeder Lecture: “Surgical Leadership: Do we need it and can we measure it?” and “Liver preservation: Where we are and future perspectives”. Visiting Professor. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, 2015.
• John Hopkins Hospital Grand Round/ MGH Richardson Lecture: “Liver Surgery – new developments”, MGH Transplant Seminar: “Liver preservation – cool is beautiful”. Visiting Professor. Johns Hopkins Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Baltimore/ Boston, USA, 2016.
• Special Grand Rounds Presentation: “Novel approaches for organ preservation in liver transplantation”, “ALLPS in Hepatobiliary Malignancy”. Visiting Professor. Lori Thompson Leist Visiting Professorship in Liver Transplantation, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, USA, 2017.

Honors and Awards: >25

• Annual Prize of the Swiss Society of Surgery ($10 000) (1989)
• Roche Travel Award, American Society of Transplantation (AST) ($15 000) (1997)
• Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTFR) Award ($100 000) (2004)
• Otto Naegeli Prize (the most prestigious scientific prize given every 2 yrs in Switzerland) ($250 000) (2008)
• Honorary Diploma in Transplantation surgery (UEMS board)
• Gimbernat Prize, given by the Societat Catalana de Cirurgia, Barcelna, Spain (2011)
• UEGF (United European Gastroenterology Federation) Research Prize (the most prestigious prize given every year by the European federation of Gastroenterology) ($150 000) (2011)
• Gemzine Award for Innovation in Transplantation. The Transplantation Society