News & Events from the Department of Surgery at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Ahmed Afifi reconstructs a young girl's arm after a serious accident

2012-05-16T11:37:21-05:00

The determined and feisty spirit of 11-year-old Alyssa Hartin is infectious. Alyssa is a pediatric plastic surgery patient who was treated by Ahmed M Afifi, MD. Alyssa’s arm suffered severe damage during a serious car accident in Louisiana. With her arm in critical condition, Alyssa traveled 18 hours back to Wisconsin to be immediately rushed into surgery with Dr. Afifi. But for all she has been through so far, and there will be more operations in the future, Alyssa’s positive attitude has helped her and those around her cope with her serious injury.

Click here to watch the heart-warming story of Alyssa’s accident, her reconstructive surgery, and her ongoing recovery.

Dr. Petros Anagnostopoulos operates on infant with congenital heart defect

2012-05-15T16:32:34-05:00

When Roy Proffit V was just four months old, he underwent cardiac surgery for a bicuspid aortic valve. Petros V. Anagnostopoulos, MD, Associate Professor and Chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery performed Roy’s procedure.

This was a big surgery for a small boy and his family, but the Proffits were able to take comfort in knowing their son was in good hands with the pediatric cardiothoracic team at American Family Children’s Hospital. For Roy’s condition, Dr. Anagnostopoulos removed the diseased part of the aorta and sewed the two parts together to make a fully functioning artery.

Although Roy may need future surgery as he grows, today is a happy and active baby boy. Click here to learn more about this amazing story.

Transplant surgeon and liver recipient share a bond beyond the operating room

2012-05-15T16:15:34-05:00

Anthony M D’Alessandro, MD, Professor of Surgery and Medical Director of the UW Health Organ Procurement Organization and the UW Health Transplant Service Line, had no idea that when he transplanted a healthy liver into a very sick three-year-old a decade ago, the little girl would become such an important part of his life. Ali, the liver transplant recipient, is now a thriving teenager who devotes much of her free time to discussing the importance of organ donation within her community. Since her transplant at age 3, Ali has remained close to the medical staff who cared for her but she shares a special bond with Dr. D’Alessandro, a bond that landed both of them under the bright lights of a ballroom dance floor.

Click here to watch more on Ali’s inspiring story and see her hit the dance floor with Dr. D’Alessandro.

Week in Review - May 7, 2012

2012-05-15T15:19:18-05:00

At the Top

The UW-Madison Outstanding Women of Color (OWoCA) selection committee announced that Dr. Jacquelynn Arbuckle is one of four recipients of the UW-Madison 2012 Awards. Chancellor David Ward will present this award at a reception in the fall. The selection committee has also nominated Dr. Arbuckle to receive the UW System 17th Annual Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award. Warm congratulations to Dr. Arbuckle.

Academic Awards

At the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES) meeting in Iowa City, April 29-May 1, Dr. Becky Sippel was appointed to the AAES Executive Council for a 3 year term starting in 2013 as the Chair of the Committee on Education and Research. UW had the highest number of abstracts of all institutions, and Kevin Shepet, a 2nd year medical student, won the Resident/Fellow Research Poster Competition. He was a Shapiro Student in the Chen Lab.

In the News

In the April 2012 Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons article “Surgeons experience more ergonomic stress in the OR,” Dr. Peter Nichol was quoted with a photo stating “ergonomics may be the most important issue facing surgeons today.” Dr. Nichol was a speaker at a 2011 American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress panel session titled “Surgeon Wear and Tear: The Hidden Cost of Adverse Ergonomics.”

Awards

Dr. Hans Sollinger was awarded the TTS – Roche Award for Outstanding Achievement in Transplantation Science (Clinical). He will receive a medal and $5000 prize during the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society in Berlin.

Kudos!

Thanks to Dr. Nathan Welham and Dr. Michael Hammer for mentoring students in the Undergraduate Research Scholars (URS) Program during the 2011-12 academic year. The program provides early undergraduates with valuable skills that help them pursue scholarship at the next level.

Lori Klitzke, Senior Provider Relations Coordinator, sent an email thanking Drs. Herb Chen and Becky Sippel for their exceptional care and bedside manner in the treatment of Michelle Bennett, a nurse working with Dr. Vincent Racanelli, a Rockford physician who refers many patients to the UW. Michelle made a special trip to Lori’s office to express her gratitude and Dr. Racanelli sent an email praising the level of service provided.

Week in Review - April 30, 2012

2012-05-08T16:28:02-05:00

At the Top

At the 131st Annual Meeting of the American Surgical Association (ASA) in San Francisco, Dr. Layton “Bing” Rikkers was elected President. Dr. Rikkers will serve as president elect this coming year and will assume the role of president in April of 2013. The ASA is the most prestigious surgical organization and is composed of an elite group of surgeons from the United States and around the world. Arguably, being president of the ASA is the most prominent post in American Surgery. This is an amazing accomplishment for a remarkable leader. The Department is honored to have Dr. Rikkers in our midst, and know that he will be a great leader of the American Surgical.

Dr. Michael Bentz and Dr. Sharon Weber were new inductees at this meeting. Dr. Kent culminated five years on the ASA program committee as this year’s program chair. Two peer-reviewed abstracts were given by Department members. Dr. John Hoch presented “Sustained Reduction of Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism and Hospital Costs with Electronic Clinical Decision Support Program,” work done in collaboration with Dr. William Turnipseed and the vascular surgery division. Dr. David Greenblatt presented “Causes and Implications of Readmission After Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair," work done by Dr. Kent’s Vascular Outcomes Group in collaboration with Dr. Caprice Greenberg and WiSOR.

Congratulations to all.

Research Awards

Gauthami Soma, a UWSMPH Shapiro student who continues to work with Dr. Kent’s vascular outcomes group, was selected as one of the recipients for the 2012 Student Research Fellowship award from the Society of Vascular Surgery Foundation. She will receive $3000 to support her research.

Calvin Harberg, a UW undergraduate student, was awarded an American Heart Association 2012 Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship for his summer research on aneurysm with Stephanie Morgan, a graduate student in Dr. Bo Liu’s lab.

In the News

Dr. John Siebert was featured on BBC in a story about three-year old Maha Asghar who is suffering with Parry-Romberg syndrome, a rare facial disorder where her immune system destroying her face. The Manchester, England family is raising funds for the pioneering treatment offered by Dr. Siebert at UWHC. To read more click here.

Study by Dr. Rebecca Sippel is featured in the Graves' Disease and Thyroid Foundation newsletter

2012-05-04T15:00:55-05:00

A study from UW-Madison, highlighted on the cover of the recent Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation, examines thyroidectomy as a treatment option for Graves’ disease. Rebecca S Sippel, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery, was the lead author on the study. Dr. Sippel suggest that the surgical removal of the thyroid is an effective and safe treatment for Graves’ disease.

Please click on the link below to read the entire article.

GravesDiseaseThyroidFoundationSpringNewsletter

UW Offers Free Head and Neck Cancer Screenings

2012-04-25T12:49:21-05:00

In observation of Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, surgeons and oncologist at the UW Carbone Cancer Center offered free oral cancer screenings on Wednesday, April 25. Last year’s event yielded 31 abnormal screenings and one cancer diagnosis from walk-in patients.

Click here to watch UW’s Chief of Otolaryngology, Timothy M McCulloch, MD, discuss who is at risk for head and neck cancer and the importance of early detection.

Week in Review - April 23, 2012

2012-04-24T09:59:30-05:00

At the Top

Dr. Suresh Agarwal will join the Department of Surgery on August 1, 2012 as Section Chief of Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, Burn, and Surgical Critical Care, and Associate Professor (CHS). Dr. Agarwal will oversee the development and growth of this new service. He plans to develop a 2-year Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship and expand the existing SICU service to provide care for otolaryngology, transplant, and plastic surgery patients. The service will also participate in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP).

Dr. Agarwal graduated with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania and received his MD from the University of Pittsburgh. After finishing his residency in General Surgery at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, CT, he was a fellow in trauma, surgical critical care, and thoracic surgery. He joined Boston University School of Medicine as an Instructor in Surgery and quickly rose through the ranks to Associate Professor, Chief of the Section of Surgical Critical Care, and Program Director for the fellowship in Trauma, Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care.

At Boston University Dr. Agarwal received the Teacher of the Year Award and the Edwin F. Hirsch Award for Excellence in Surgery Education. In 2011 he received a Presidential Citation from the Society of Critical Care Medicine and was recognized as a Top Doc by US News and World Report. He holds leadership positions in Society of Critical Care Medicine (Vice Chair, GRE Committee), Association for Academic Surgery (Publication Committee), and Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Dr. Agarwal is the principal investigator on two current extramurally funded awards. The National Trauma Institute funds his work titled “Acute Lung Injury Ventilation Evaluation” ($295K/yr) and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) funds his work titled “Development of a Novel Tool for Chest Wall Stabilization ($75K/yr). He also mentors a researcher with funding from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma titled “Assessing Safe Driving Patterns in Elderly Patients” ($12K/yr).

Dr. Agarwal is married to Deb Agarwal, a nurse practitioner who is staying at home with their three daughters, ages 5, 4 and 8 months. They are looking forward to moving to Madison.

Research Awards

Drs. Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong (Associate Professor, School of Engineering), Herb Chen, and Renata Jaskula-Sztul were notified that they received a $75,000 award for their research titled “Co-delivery of siRNA and Anticancer Drug using Multifunctional Au NR-based Nanocarriers for Targeted Neuroendocrine Cancer Therapy” submitted in the Fall, 2011 Combined Pilot Program sponsored by the SMPH, Morgridge Institute for Research, the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, and the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. The idea for this research was first discussed at the Department of Surgery’s Speed Dating Event on February 26, 2010, where twenty members from each department challenged themselves to present their research ideas and specialties during the 2 minute speed date encounters.

Promotions

The SMPH CHS Track Appointments and Promotions Committee unanimously endorsed Dr. Takushi Kohmoto’s promotion to the rank of Associate Professor (CHS) and Dr. Petros Anagnostopoulos’ appointment as Associate Professor (CHS). Congratulations to both surgeons in cardiothoracic surgery.

Scholarship

Dr. Becky Sippel was recently added to the editorial board of Clinical Medicine Insights: Endocrinology and Diabetes.

Week in Review - April 16, 2012

2012-04-18T07:53:47-05:00

At the Top

Nearly 100 Surgeons, Residents and Advanced Practice Providers attended the 3rd Annual Current Topics in General Surgery CME course at the Monona Terrace on April 13-14. Co-Directed by Drs. Herb Chen, Greg Kennedy, Jon Matsumura, Lee Wilke, and Emily Winslow, the program featured four guest speakers and 32 Department faculty members examining the latest developments and current techniques in general surgery. Panel discussions and case reviews created robust discussions with attendees and two live operations broadcast from UWHC operating rooms (thanks to surgeons Jake Greenberg and Mike Garren who performed a sleeve gastrectomy and Greg Kennedy, Chuck Heise and Bruce Harms who performed a lap colon) generated much interest from the audience. The Department’s effort to support surgeons in Wisconsin and beyond has met with the tremendous success based on the growth in attendance at this course. Thanks to Christine Schmieden for her outstanding work supporting this event.

Research Awards

Dr. Jon Odorico was notified by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation that his grant proposal “Endocrine Specification and Maturation from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” was funded for two years. The award is effective 06/01/2012.

Dr. Emily Winslow is the inaugural recipient of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract’s Career Development Award for Clinical/Outcomes/Education Research for her proposal “The Detection of Liver Metastases with Gadoexetic Acid-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): A Study of Radiographic-Pathologic Correlation”. The two year research award is $40,000. Support will begin on July 1, 2012.

Scholarship

Dr. Susan Thibeault is the winner of the Journal of Voice 2011 Best Paper Award in the category of basic science. The citation for this work is “In Vivo Engineering of the Vocal Fold ECM With Injectable HA Hydrogels-Late Effects on Tissue Repair and Biomechanics in a Rabbit Model.” Susan L. Thibeault, Sarah A. Klemuk, Xia Chen, Beatriz H. Quinchia Johnson Volume 25(2) pp. 249-253. March 2011. Congratulations!

Dr. Haggi Mazeh, Endocrine Fellow, had an article published in Thyroid as the feature article this month, highlighted on the cover.

Dr. Emily Winslow was one of three faculty members selected by the Dean to attend the AAMC Early Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar.

Board Appointments

Dr. Dixon Kaufman was elected to the 2012-2013 United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Executive Committee as a Regional Councillor Representative At Large, Thoracic & Medical/Scientific Representative.

Above the Call of Duty

In an effort to get licensed and credentialed in time to cover call on the acute care surgery service, Dr. Carla Pugh took a train to Springfield, Illinois to get a copy of her Illinois license materials to bring back to a slow-moving Wisconsin licensing office. Now that’s determination!

Outreach

Dr. Hans Sollinger presented at the Middle East Transplantation Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on MPA formulation differentiation and at the International Pancreas Transplant Symposium in Tenerife, Canary Islands on current status of pancreas transplantation and a possible cure for diabetes.

Dr. John Siebert featured in BBC article concerning Parry-Romberg Syndrome

2012-04-06T09:48:39-05:00

John Siebert, MD, Professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, is featured in a BBC News article that discusses how a UK family is fighting to save the life of their daughter who has Parry-Romberg Syndrome. According to the article, in the UK, the NHS only offers cosmetic surgery to individuals once they turn 16. Her family thinks that will be too late so they are in the process of raising money in hopes of sending her to the U.S.

To view the article in full, please click on the link below:

Family fight to save daughter Maha Asghar’s smile

Week in Review - March 26, 2012

2012-03-27T13:15:29-05:00

At the Top

A multidisciplinary team from cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, cardiology, and anesthesia successfully completed four Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantations (TAVI). The procedure is used for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are not candidates for surgery. All four patients are doing well. UW is one of two sites in Wisconsin approved to do TAVI’s. To celebrate this achievement UW Health placed the attached ad in the Madison newspapers.

Christine Schmieden and Chris Kintner were selected to represent the Department of Surgery on March 27 at the 13th Annual Showcase – a campus-wide event sponsored by the Offices of Quality Improvement and Human Resources. Their poster presentation will exhibit the Department of Surgery Provider Quick Reference Tool.

Awards

The Division of Otolaryngology was well represented at the 20th annual meeting of the Dysphagia Research Society in Toronto March 8-10, with multiple posters and podium presentations. Corrine Jones, MS, CCC received the top honors for best oral presentation at the meeting, and Matthew Hoffman, BS (PhD research student) received a poster merit award.

The UW Department of Communicative Disorders, with whom we share many faculty members, was again ranked second in the U.S News and World Report review.

Scholarship

In the February 2012 issue of Surgery, three Department of Surgery members were published. Carla Pugh, MD, PhD was senior author on the lead article “Error training: Missing link in surgical education,” Ken Kudsk, MD was senior author with Mark Jonker, MD (PGY4) first author of “Small intestine mucosal immune system response to injury and the impact of parenteral nutrition,” and Dixon Kaufman was senior author on “Conditional and specific inhibition of NF-κB in mouse pancreatic β cells prevents cytokine-induced deleterious effects and improves islet survival posttransplant.” Great work!

Board Appointments

Dixon Kaufman, MD, PhD, was elected as Region 7 Councillor of the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). The OPTN brings together medical professionals, transplant recipients and donor families to develop national organ transplantation policy. These positions will be effective at the conclusion of the Board meeting on June 26, 2012.

New Residents

The residents hired this year are simply spectacular. This week we’ll highlight Plastic Surgery and General Surgery.

Plastic Surgery

Brian Christie
MD – Duke University School of Medicine
BA – Dartmouth College
Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship
Global Health participant in Tanzania, Honduras, and Uganda; Katrina Relief in Mississippi
Guitarist, Proficient in Swahili and Spanish

Ravi Garg
MD – Boston University School of Medicine
BA – Stanford University
PGY-1 University of California – San Francisco Internal Medicine
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Stanford University
Runner and diver, Proficient in Punjabi and Hindi

Stephanie Suprenant
MD – Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
MPH – Columbia University
BS – Olivet Nazarene University
Global Health participant in Costa Rica and Romania
Triathlon and Marathon athlete, Tae Kwon Do black belt

General Surgery

Charles Acher
MD – University of Wisconsin
MPH – Yale University
BS – Middlebury College
Global Health worker in China, Ethiopia, Uganda
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Taiwo Adesoye
MD – University of Chicago
BS – Phi Beta Kappa from University of Oklahoma
Originally from Nigeria
Co-owner of a hair salon and an active singer/songwriter for KingsWord International Church Choir
Volunteer at women’s shelter in underserved areas of Chicago.
Fluent in Yoruba.

Dana Henkel
MD – University of Wisconsin
MS – PA Studies, Western Michigan University
BS – Western Michigan University
Worked as surgical PA in Madison for 7 years
Division I Gymnast

Christina Lee
MD – Michigan State University
BS – University of British Columbia
Originally from Canada
Classical pianist trained at London College of Music of England and the Royal Conservatory of Music of Canada
Fluent in French and Cantonese.

Christina Papageorge
MD – University of Virginia
BS – Phi Beta Kappa from College of William and Mary
Attended on an athletic scholarship
Has backpacked 250+ miles of the Appalachian Trail in the last 3 years

Kyle Pauly
MD – University of Wisconsin
BS – University of Wisconsin
Research Honors Program in Josh Mezrich’s lab
Started FACE AIDS, and raises money for those affected by AIDS/HIV in Rwanda by starting sustainable farms.
Conversant in Spanish.

Andrew Rogers
MD – University of Colorado
BS – Stanford University
Published in biomechanics of golf swings
Co-founder of non-profit organization Medical Students for Lymphoma Research

Joel Wood
MD – University of Wisconsin
BS – University of Wisconsin
Author on numerous peer reviewed journal articles.
A competitive runner, Joel holds the current Wisconsin Track Club 3000 meters indoor record (8:43.59) and recently placed fourth in the Madison Marathon with a time of 2:43.

Week in Review - March 19, 2012

2012-03-22T10:06:36-05:00

At the Top

The Department of Surgery, under the local leadership of William Turnipseed, MD, hosted the 69th Meeting of the Central Surgical Association from March 1-3, 2012 in Madison. The conference opened with a program featuring Craig Kent, MD, Caprice Greenberg, MD, Greg Kennedy, MD, PhD, Jon Matsumura, MD, Dixon Kaufman, MD, PhD and Herb Chen, MD showcasing the remarkable advances made at the UW Department of Surgery in research and clinical care. During the meeting, Ankush Gosain, MD, PhD of the pediatric surgery group, was awarded the Central Surgical Association Foundation Turcotte Enrichment Grant.

Ken Kudsk, MD was officially notified that his VAH Merit Review Grant, “Route of Nutrition and Enteric Nervous System,” was funded. He credits Aaron Heneghan, PhD, Assistant Scientist, with his outstanding work in this application.

Craig Kent, MD and Bo Liu, PhD received official notice from the NIH that their new NRSA training grant award in vascular surgery was funded for five years. They were awarded two postdoctoral training slots in year 1 and four for the following four years.

Teaching Awards

Aaron Chalmers, MD, PGY4, was the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Resident Award given by the Medical School Class of 2012. In the award letter, they stated: “we feel your incredible ability to help us through rotations in the clinic years of medical school deserves recognition at our Match Day Ceremony on March 16th.”

Research Awards

Rebecca Busch, MD, PGY1, was selected as the travel award winner for her Society of University Surgeons presentation on cold ischemia and reperfusion injury. She will represent the SUS at the upcoming 2012 ESSR meeting in Lille, France June 6-9, 2012.

Joe Pierre, a PhD candidate in the lab of Ken Kudsk, MD, won the Human Emphasis Group, Best Poster Award at the 14th Annual Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences (IGPNS) Poster Session, March 3rd, 2012 for his original work entitled “Cranberry Proanthocyanidins Attenuate the Effects of Elemental Enteral Nutrition on Size, Density, and Function of Intestinal Goblet Cells in Mice.”

Congratulations

Michael Tirabassi, MD, was board certified in Pediatric Surgery this month.

The SMPH CHS Track Appointments and Promotions Committee unanimously promoted Lucian Lozonschi, MD, and James Maloney, MD, to the rank of Associate Professor (CHS). The promotions will become effective July 1, 2012.

Dr. Sharon Weber discusses laparoscopic resection of hepatic colorectal cancer

2012-03-14T14:28:31-05:00

Sharon M Weber, MD, Professor of Surgery and Medical Director of Surgical Oncology at UW Hospital and Clinics, served as an invited discussant on hepatic colorectal cancer at this year’s Central Surgical Association Meeting. Dr. Weber’s expertise was sought to analyze traditional open surgery versus minimally invasive surgery for patients with metastatic deposits of colorectal cancer in the liver.

Click here> to read the entire article.

Week in Review - February 27 - March 5, 2012

2012-03-13T10:29:23-05:00

At the Top

Two faculty members in General Surgery received top SMPH teaching awards. Becky Sippel was selected to receive one of four Dean’s Teaching Awards at Medical Education Day on March 9, 2012. Greg Kennedy won a Medical Alumni Association 2011 Distinguished Award for Clinical Science Teaching. The award is presented during graduation weekend.

Scholarship

Dr. Becky Sippel will join the editorial board of a new quarterly review journal, Current Surgery Reports, published by Springer. Current Surgery Reports will include commissioned reviews of recent literature, with annotated reference lists of particularly important studies from the past three years.

Many faculty members, residents and medical students participated in the recent Society of University Surgeons (SUS) and Association of Academic Surgeons (AAS) at the Academic Surgical Congress held last month. UW had >40 abstracts, the most from any one institution.

Rebecca Busch, PGY1, received the award for top resident research presentation at the SUS meeting. Her work, done while a medical student at Washington University, was titled “Inhibition Of Cold Ischemia And Reperfusion Injury Mediated By Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) By NFkB Inhibitor PS-341.”

Priyesh Patel, a 2nd year medical student in Dr. Herbert Chen’s lab, won the best Medical Student Presentation contest.

Six faculty will be serving on the AAS Executive Council: Clifford Cho as Councilor, Greg Kennedy as Issues Committee Chair, Carla Pugh as Liaison to the Association of Women Surgeons, Rebecca Sippel as Liaison to the Association of Surgical Education, David Foley as Liaison to the National Association of Biomedical Researchers, and Caprice Greenberg as Representative to the Surgical Outcomes Club.

Research

Felix Lee, PGY3, mentored by David Foley, was awarded the ACS Resident Research Scholarship for his application entitled, “Targeting Nrf2 in Hepatic Stellate Cells (HSC): A Novel Strategy to Mitigate Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury”. The award is for $30,000/year for 2 years.

Lynn Haynes, Distinguished Researcher, has accepted the position of Vice Chair of the SMPH Animal Care and Use Committee. Lynn is also the current chair of the UW Madison Distinguished Prefix Review Committee.

UW surgeons discuss minimally invasive surgery options available at UW Hospital

2012-03-13T08:43:19-05:00

Jacob A. Greenberg, MD, EdM and Gregory D Kennedy, MD, PhD, both Assistant Professors in the Division of General Surgery, were recently featured in the Wisconsin State Journal describing novel surgical techniques with less scarring and faster recovery.

Click here to read more on these surgical options and view images from the operating room.

Dr. Jon Matsumura uses GORE technology to repair thoracic aneurysms

2012-03-02T15:18:53-06:00

In 2001, Jon S Matsumura, MD was a surgeon at Northwestern University Medical Center. That year, he repaired a thoracic anerysm in Scott Zacek. Follow-up CT scans over the next 10 years tracked those aneurysms to make sure Zacek was not at risk for a rupture. Late last year, when he was told that an aneurysm had grown slightly, Zacek traveled to Madison for his operation where Dr. Matsumura now serves as Professor and Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery. He would enlist the surgical skills of Dr. Matsumura once again. Dr. Matsumura employed novel devices with GORE technology to repair the difficult aneurysm that had developed near Zacek’s spine.

Click here to read more on this remarkable procedure.

Dr. Lee Wilke discusses the correlation between breast cancer and obesity

2012-03-02T15:07:11-06:00

Lee G Wilke, MD, Associate Professor and Director of the UW Health Breast Center was recently featured on Madison’s Fox 47 news discussing breast cancer and obesity.

“Obesity increases the risk of estrogen-dependent cancers,” Dr. Wilke said. “Fat cells can make hormones. There’s also an imbalance between insulin and sugar in your body when you’re obese.”

Click here to watch the news segment and hear more from Dr. Wilke.

Week in Review - February 20, 2012

2012-02-21T08:51:43-06:00

At the Top

Michelle Ciucci, PhD, was awarded a prestigious, $75,000 one-year Michael J. Fox Foundation Research Grant to study “Characterization of vocalization and swallowing deficits in Pink1 Knockout Rats.”

Research

Priyesh Patel, a Shapiro/NIH T35 student and current 2nd year UW medical student, won the medical student competition at the 7th Annual Academic Surgical Congress in Las Vegas. His presentation entitled “Hesperetin Activates The Notch1 Signaling Cascade, Induces Cellular Differentiation, And Causes Apoptosis In Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer” was the winner of over 100 medical student abstracts from all over the world.

Ankush Gosain, MD, PhD, was awarded the Central Surgical Association Foundation Turcotte Enrichment Grant of $10,000.

Muthusamy Kunnimalaiyaan, PhD was selected from a competitive pool of qualified applicants to receive a Mirus Research Award in the amount of $3,000. This award will serve as credit towards Mirus Bio transfection and electroporation products.

Clinical Innovations

The 4th Quarter VASQIP (VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program) report reflects that Madison VA Hospital continues to be a low outlier for mortality and morbidity (0.3) in 8 major surgical subspecialties. Congratulations to everyone involved with producing these wonderful surgical outcomes!

On Tuesday, February 7 Seth Dailey, MD, was featured on Channel 3000 describing a new operation he performed to restore a patient’s voice. You can replay the piece here.

Mike Mathis Productions is creating episodes for a “medical mystery show” airing on Discovery Health. Seth Dailey MD and a patient will be featured. After years of not being able to breathe, he correctly diagnosed and treated her for Idiopathic Subglottic Tracheal Stenosis, a condition in which the windpipe becomes constricted.

Dr. Seth Dailey, Featured on Channel3000.com, Restored Man's Ability to Speak

2012-02-09T10:39:56-06:00

Seth Dailey, MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, is featured in an article on Channel3000.com. Dr. Dailey performed a cutting-edge surgical procedure that brought back the voice of a Monona man who lost his ability to speak.

To view the article in full, please click on the link below:

UW Surgeon Restores Man’s Ability to Speak

Dr. Elizabeth Sisk Discusses Kids and the Danger of Coin/Button Batteries

2012-02-09T10:23:12-06:00

Elizabeth Sisk, MD, Assistant Professor in the division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, is featured in an online article on Health News from HealthCanal.com about how coin batteries can be a hidden danger to kids. To view the article in full, please click on the link below:

Coin Batteries Hidden Danger to Kids