Geert Wanten appointed as Professor of Optimization of care for patients with intestinal failure

Gastroenterologist Geert Wanten has been appointed Professor of Optimization of care for patients with intestinal failure at Radboud university medical center / Radboud University. He improves care for patients with intestinal failure and helps them remain as independent as possible. To achieve this, he develops a wide range of innovations, enabling patients, for example, to safely administer intravenous nutrition or fluids at home.

In patients with intestinal failure, the intestines do not function adequately, meaning they require nutrition or fluids via a catheter directly into the bloodstream. The most common cause is short bowel syndrome, which occurs when parts of the intestine have been surgically removed due to inflammation, such as in Crohn’s disease, or because of intestinal ischemia caused by vascular disease. ‘Most nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine. If less than two meters of it remains functional, things become difficult’, explains gastroenterologist Geert Wanten.

Together with his team at Radboudumc, Wanten treats around 250 of the approximately 400 people in the Netherlands living with chronic intestinal failure. He works closely with Amsterdam UMC, UMC Groningen, and Maastricht UMC+. Patients with acute intestinal failure are mainly treated in Amsterdam. In Groningen, physicians specialize in small bowel transplantation, while Maastricht is home to the national center for gastrointestinal motility.

Reducing infections

Above all, Wanten is committed to expanding care at home and in regional hospitals whenever possible. ‘We make people with intestinal failure as self-reliant as possible’, Wanten explains. ‘We teach them how to prepare and administer their own intravenous nutrition so this can be done at home. And when a hospital visit or admission is necessary, it is ideal for the patient if—through intensive collaboration with regional hospitals—we can ensure they are treated there using our protocols. There is still a long way to go before this works optimally everywhere.’

To enable home-based care, Wanten and his team devised innovative solutions to prevent the most common complication of intravenous nutrition: catheter-related infections. They demonstrated that using the antimicrobial agent taurolidine in the catheter significantly reduces infection rates. This has since become the European standard. In addition, in collaboration with vascular surgeons in Nijmegen, the team developed the shunt, a surgically created connection between an artery and a vein, which enables self-cannulation to administer intravenous nutrition. This too helps reduce infections.

Self-monitoring

Wanten is also committed to improving diagnostics, both at home and in the hospital. ‘We are developing home-based measurement techniques, for example using point-of-care technology. In collaboration with a company, we built a device that allows people with a short bowel to measure the salt concentration in their urine themselves. This enables them to check whether they are becoming dehydrated and, if necessary, adjust their infusion to prevent kidney damage and hospital admission.’

Within the hospital, Wanten is using funding from the Betaalbaar Beter program to develop a much faster test for detecting infections. ‘Previously, you had to wait for and rely on the results of a blood culture: this sometimes took up to five days before a bacterium or fungus was identified’, says Wanten. ‘Now, a specialized PCR test provides reliable results within a few hours.’

Finally, Wanten measures liver damage caused by fatty degeneration, one of the complications of intestinal failure, using modified ultrasound or MRI scans. This helps avoid the need for more invasive and risky liver biopsies. As a professor, Wanten and the intestinal failure team will continue to further develop and implement all of these innovations.

Career

Geert Wanten studied Biology and Medicine at Radboud University. He then completed specialist training in both internal medicine and gastroenterology, both at Radboudumc. In 2002, Wanten earned his PhD with a dissertation on the effects of intravenous fat emulsions on the immune system. Since 2003, he has worked as a gastroenterologist at Radboudumc, where he is also head of the Expertise Center for Chronic Intestinal Failure and of the research laboratory.

For many years, Wanten served as chair of both the Dutch Society for Parenteral Nutrition (NESPEN) and the Nutrition Working Group of the Dutch Society of Gastroenterology (NVMDL). He currently serves as treasurer of the Dutch Intestinal Failure Foundation. Internationally, he is involved in developing new guidelines through the ESPEN Home Artificial Nutrition Working Group. His appointment as professor takes effect on 1 May 2026 and continues until the retirement date, 25 April 2029.

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