Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Gasser

Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Gasser grew up in Weinheim (Baden-Württemberg) and in Cape Town in South Africa. His medical studies took him to Ignaz Semmelweis University in Budapest, Essen University Hospital and several times abroad. Among other things, he interned at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. After gaining his license to practice medicine, he completed his doctorate on epidural scarring after lumbar intraspinal surgery. Following his specialist training, he completed his habilitation on the development and clinical relevance of functional magnetic resonance imaging for neurosurgery.

He established the Department of Functional Neurosurgery and Intraoperative Imaging at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and has been responsible for the Department of Functional Neurosurgery at Essen University Hospital since 2008.
The use of state-of-the-art therapeutic procedures for the treatment of pain and movement disorders (spinal cord stimulation – SCS, deep brain stimulation – DBS) is a key focus of his medical work. He also specializes in the surgical, microsurgical treatment of diseases of the spine and brain.

The focus of Prof. Dr. Gasser’s scientific career is the use of complex imaging techniques in neurosurgery. In 2005, he was awarded the International Exchange Grant of the German and Japanese Society for Neurosurgery. This led to a research stay at Tokyo Women’s Medical University.

He is the author and co-author of more than 130 scientific papers and book contributions, holds two patents for medical devices and regularly gives scientific presentations at international congresses. Prof. Dr. Gasser is also a scientific advisor and member of the scientific advisory board of Medtronic Navigation, Louisville, United States. He is also a member of several professional societies: the German Society for Neurosurgery, the World Congress of Neurological Surgeons (WCNS) and the World Society for Stereotaxy and Functional Neurosurgery (WSSFN).