The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) Kauno klinikos is the largest healthcare institution in Lithuania. The Hospital has two founders: the Ministry of Health and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU). Established in 1940, the Hospital has grown into one of the most prominent hospitals in the country. Hospital of Kauno klinikos is dedicated to providing the highest quality healthcare to patients from all over the country and abroad.
Kauno klinikos employs more than 1300 physicians and 2300 nurses, who provide care according to the standards of evidence-based clinical practice. The hospital has 39 departments devoted to all medical and surgical specialties, including cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery and organ transplant surgery. In recent years, the annual number of outpatient consultations increased significantly, exceeding 1 million visits and 72 thousand hospital admissions.
The Mission of Kauno klinikos is to improve the health and quality of life of population, develop ambitious and advanced health specialists, and create and implement innovations based on scientific research.
The Hospital’s specialists have brought many medical "firsts" and "onlys" to Lithuania, including the first use of foldable intraocular lenses for cataract surgery, endobronchial ultrasound for lung cancer diagnosis, the first use of capsule endoscopy to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease, transcatheter aortic valve implantation, and many other minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment techniques.
The Cardiac surgery centre of Kauno klinikos was established in 1957 and it has been a cradle for many significant inventions ever since. Original therapeutic techniques, such as electric cardiac stimulation, cryo- and laser ablation of arrhythmogenic lesions, were introduced here for the treatment of serious heart rhythm disorders. Heading the Center is Prof. Rimantas Benetis, a globally renowned valve reparative surgery and coronary bypass surgery expert, who successfully carried out the first heart-and-lung transplant in Lithuania. Today Kauno klinikos is the only provider of lung transplantations in Lithuania.
Kauno klinikos has state-of-the-art technologies for medical imaging and a proper infrastructure to meet the procedural requirements of different radiology examinations. The Radiology Department of Kauno klinikos provides a wide range of diagnostic imaging services: including CT scanning, DEXA bone density scanning, mammography, angiography, MRI scanning, radioisotope scanning, ultrasound scanning, and X-ray. The first PET-CT scanner in Lithuania was installed in a brand-new Diagnostic Radiology Centre of Kauno klinikos. The PET-CT scanner brings new possibilities for detecting tumours, staging of cancer before treatment, during and after therapy, for surgery and radiotherapy planning and follow-up of cancer patients.
Interventional radiology procedures performed by highly-qualified specialists often replace open surgical procedures. A transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting (TIPS) procedure, selective renal and hepatic artery embolization and many other procedures are done by radiologists of Kauno klinikos.
Brain tumours are one of the most dangerous forms of cancer posing threat to human life. Therefore neuro-oncology is one of the principal directions of work at the Neuroscience Institute of the LSMU and Department of Neurosurgery. A couple of years ago, neurosurgeons began using a modern method of dissecting brain metastases and other brain tumours. During the surgery, a strong water jet, generated by one of the world’s most advanced tumour resection instruments “Helix Hydro Jet”, dissects the lesion from the brain without damaging it. So far, this is the only such modern device in Lithuania offering more opportunities to neurosurgeons in fighting against cancer.
Introduction of other new technologies promotes development of skull base surgery, which is one of the youngest and most complex areas of neurosurgery. Intraoperative imaging modalities, such as MRI and ultrasound, endoscopic and stereotactic techniques offer surgeons better opportunities for planning treatment options. It is difficult to imagine skull base surgery evolution without close collaboration with ENT specialists, ophthalmology, and plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery. Kauno klinikos is a unique place in Lithuania, where such cooperation is possible.
In recent years, 25 centers for rare diseases have been established in Kauno klinikos to enable effective collaboration among different specialities treating rare conditions such as neuromuscular disorders, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, neuroendocrine tumours, etc.