Department of Surgery Enters Bold New Era of Expansion
September 04, 2009
In July 2009, Janice Thai, MD, a distinguished 2009 graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine, became the first resident in the new vascular surgery residency at The University of Arizona College of Medicine. The Division of Vascular Surgery in the UA Department of Surgery is one of the first 19 sites in the nation to receive full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for a primary five-year vascular surgery residency program and is the only accredited site for vascular and endovascular surgery training in the entire Southwest.
This distinction is just the latest in a series of remarkable news from the UA Department of Surgery.
Since 2007, the Department of Surgery has dramatically increased the size of its faculty, more than doubling the number of surgeons from 22 clinically-active surgeons to 48.
Department Chairman Rainer W.G. Gruessner, MD, says that growing the department provides growing opportunities to offer patients more innovative and life-saving surgical treatments, while advancing surgical education and research. In addition to increasing the number of surgeons, the expansion includes a host of multidisciplinary programs, many of them centering on transplantation.
Transplantation
A revitalization of the University Medical Center Transplant Program significantly increased the number of organ recipients in the 2007-08 fiscal year, with kidney and pancreas procedures at all-time highs. The overall total of transplants for 2007-08 – including heart, lung, kidney, liver and pancreas transplants – reached 150, the highest since the program began in 1979.
UMC’s liver transplant program, directed by John F. Renz, MD, PhD; Khalid M. Khan, MBChB, MRCP; Thomas D. Boyer, MD, and Dr. Gruessner, recently received certification by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This certification greatly expands access to life-saving liver transplants. Of the 23 liver recipients at UMC in 2008, 12 were pediatric patients (seven younger than 1 year).
The cardiothoracic transplant program reached a milestone last February that few hospitals in the nation have reached – its one-thousandth transplant patient. Started by cardiothoracic surgeon Jack G. Copeland, MD, in 1979, the program performs heart transplants, single- and double-lung transplants, and heart-lung transplants.
In the past year, two new abdominal transplant programs have been added to the Transplant Program. UMC became the first hospital in Arizona to provide life-saving intestine and combined intestine and liver transplants for children and adults with irreversible small-bowel failure. UA surgeons performed the state’s first living-donor intestine transplant in April 2009. Dr. Khalid M. Khan, a renowned pediatric gastroenterologist, directs the pediatric liver and intestinal transplant program.
In summer 2009, UA surgeons made news as the first in the Southwest to perform successful auto-islet cell transplants in patients with severe chronic pancreatitis. The procedure alleviates the pain from pancreatitis while avoiding surgically induced diabetes. Horacio L. Rilo, MD, internationally known for his work in islet cell transplantation, directs autotransplants (transplantation of organs or tissues from one part of the body to another in the same individual) for patients with chronic pancreatitis and allotransplants (organ or tissue transplants between genetically different individuals of the same species) for patients with brittle type 1 diabetes mellitus. He created the Comprehensive Center for Chronic Pancreatitis at UMC to make available these life-changing procedures.
Other Major Initiatives
HepatoPancreaticoBiliary (HPB) Center
Treatments for diseases of the liver, pancreas and biliary system can be complex and challenging. Dr. Gruessner has gathered a team of nationally recognized surgeons, oncologists, gastroenterologists, hepatologists, pathologists, anesthesiologists and radiation oncologists to establish the HPB Center at UMC. Created to take on the most difficult cases, the center is one of a handful in the country to offer a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of these diseases.
Southwest’s Most Advanced Clinic for Wound Care
Professor of Surgery David G. Armstrong, DPM, PhD, a distinguished podiatrist and researcher, now directs our new Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA). Working with the department’s vascular surgeons, including vascular chief Joseph L. Mills, MD, SALSA focuses on targeted vascular surgery, wound healing, and amputation-preventive therapies for patients with diabetes.
Surgical Care for Cancer Patients
In collaboration with the Arizona Cancer Center, UA surgeons bring to UMC the latest technology to downsize or destroy primary liver tumors or hepatic metastases through minimally invasive techniques. Evan S. Ong, MD, performs laparoscopic microwave and bipolar radiofrequency ablation and intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemoperfusion (IPHC) for cancer patients. Alfred M. Cohen, MD, formerly director of colorectal surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is a pioneer in enhancing quality of life for patients with rectal cancer. Vassiliki L. Tsikitis, MD, is an expert in both open and minimally invasive procedures for patients with various diseases of the colon and rectum. Mitchell Sokoloff, MD, chief of urology, is nationally recognized for his work on prostate cancer, kidney cancer and testis cancer. He has received more than $1 million in peer-reviewed grant support from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Pelvic Floor Program
Urologist Christian Twiss, MD, and Dr. Tsikitis are leading the development of UMC’s comprehensive, multidisciplinary Pelvic Floor Program. Specialists in urology, surgery, gynecology, physical therapy, nutrition and psychiatry will work as a team to treat patients diagnosed with urinary or fecal incontinence, constipation, prolapse and pelvic pain.
Resident Education and Department Remodel
An MS/PhD program in Medical Sciences initiated by the department has been approved by The University of Arizona. The first general surgery resident will go into the lab in July 2009 to pursue the MS degree in medical science sponsored by the UA College of Medicine.
The remodeling of more than 16,000 square feet of department office and lab space anticipates the expansion and addition of more faculty and programs to our department. “As the Department of Surgery continues to grow, we are committed to providing the most comprehensive and cutting-edge approach to surgical care and to training the future leaders in surgery,” says Dr. Gruessner.