Science and especially medicine has always been for us Greeks a field in which we excel internationally, we innovate and essentially initiate developments, thanks to enlightened and well-trained scientists. And when this special blend of personality, experience and knowledge results in cutting-edge medical technologies that help save lives, then we have even more reason to feel proud.

Another shining example is the contribution of the outstanding scientist, Eleftherios Malakoudis, CEO of the German company Andanza International which specialises in creating new, innovative medical technologies for better arterial puncture (stent) treatment.

Dr. Malakoudis, originally from the village of Nikiti in Halkidiki, studied at the Medical School of Banja Luka in Bosnia/Herzegovina, and today is one of the few medical clinical executives in Europe and the world. With his specialised medical knowledge, he contributed significantly to the development and creation of a corresponding stent technology with splints made of special polymers or even polymer-metal alloys that are fully absorbable by the human body.

With this, he contributed greatly to the best possible treatment of one of the most lethal and demanding cancers, that of the liver and especially of the cholangiocytes and especially of the pancreatic duct. Until recently, a major inhibiting factor in its management was the blockage of the upper passages by stony crystals, which resulted in the deterioration of patients and, in many cases, their demise.

The most indicative solution to this problem was transplantation, however, in many cases it failed due to an idiopathic “wrinkling” of the stem of the graft on its anastomosis in the recipient’s liver. A temporary solution to this issue was the use of special stented stents, however in the long run it made the situation more complicated. Dr Eleftherios Malakoudis provided a solution to this problem by using the world’s first intra-anal stent splint, which was given the Greek name “Archimedes”. Thanks to the use of this particular stent, liver grafts that were rejected due to the “wrinkling” of the lumen in the anastomosis are no longer rejected.

Dr. Eleftherios Malakoudis, as global clinical & bussines development manager of the Andanza International group – based in Eswege, central Germany – has been involved since 2014 in the development of prostheses made of special polymers or polymer and metal alloys that are fully absorbed by the human body.

Thus, this unique technology produced in northern Germany is now in the hands of the doctors of the Balkan Peninsula, especially the Greeks, through the Greek scientist, giving a significant window of survival to pancreatic, biliary and liver cancer sufferers.

“You sleep better at night when you are helping cancer patients and have saved 20-30 valuable liver transplants a year – and that’s just in Thessaloniki,” he says.