Annual report 2022

As a result of team spirit, cordiality and passion for our work, our employees once again managed to combine the best care for our patients with innovative research work and clinical breakthroughs.

Find out about our activities and achievements through key figures, news items and images.

Highlights

15 December 2022
An international research group led by UZ Leuven, KU Leuven and Imperial College London developed a new strategy to classify ovarian tumors as benign or malignant. They validated the approach in nearly 5,000 patients at 17 centers worldwide and confirmed that it helps doctors determine the most appropriate treatment.
12 December 2022
COVID-19 is often accompanied by partial or complete loss of the sense of smell. It was long thought that the coronavirus could reach and infect the brains via the nasal mucosa. However, an international research team, including UZ Leuven doctors has found no proof of that.
27 October 2022
UZ Leuven doctors have examined whether exposure to anaesthesie during the pregnancy has an impact on the brain development of the baby. The results are reassuring: no significant link was detected.
22 September 2022
A new international clinical trial with tofersen confirms that the drug can stop ALS in patients with a SOD1 mutation. With this doctors and researchers show for the first time that, in principle, ALS is a treatable disease. The results have been published in NEJM.
25 August 2022
Over 15 per cent of all critically ill patients who end up in intensive care with severe influenza or Covid-19 additionally develop aspergillosis, a pulmonary fungal infection. This doubles their mortality rate. A UZ Leuven and KU Leuven trial with international partners has revealed the underlying mechanism.
13 June 2022
On Wednesday 15 June the Leuven care centre after sexual violence (ZSG) will open at the Gasthuisberg campus. Victims of sexual violence can go there 24/7 for medical care, psychological support and forensic research. Anyone who wants to can lodg a complaint in the care centre.
3 February 2022
Via a radioactive molecular cancer drug, injected in the bloodstream, UZ Leuven doctors have managed to stop the metastasis of rare neuro-endocrine tumours. As a result, the chance for further growth significanctly reduced, sometimes even up to 80 per cent.
2 February 2022
Mid-January 2022, the 5,000th kidney transplant took place at UZ Leuven. Prof. dr. Dirk Kuypers, head of the nephrology department, looks back on a couple of historic innovations that resulted in the excellence of the Leuven kidney transplant care programme.
19 January 2022
At UZ Leuven, two intestine transplant patients were succesfully given a new abdominal wall. This procedure has only been done about 50 times across the world.
Last edit: 2 March 2023