About the Department of Surgery
Academic Title: Professor
Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery
Chair, Department of Surgery
Board Certifications:
Surgery
Jefferson's Department of Surgery is steeped in a tradition of advancing surgical procedures and setting the standard for surgeons around the world. In fact, our surgeons have a long history as pioneers:
- It was at Jefferson that Samuel D. Gross, MD, served as the chairman of surgery. Referred to as "The Emperor of American Surgery" in the 19th century, Dr. Gross was responsible for authoring numerous textbooks and devising countless new surgical instruments and techniques that are used in hospitals throughout the world. He is also the subject of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic, a famous 1875 painting.
- In 1889, William W. Keen, MD, was one of the first physicians to operate on the liver and nervous system and was the first to successfully remove a brain tumor.
- John Chalmers DaCosta, MD, head of surgery (1907 to 1933), wrote the standard surgery text used through 10 editions at American medical schools.
- Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Jr., Jefferson professor and chairman of surgery (1956-1967), is renowned in medical history as the inventor of the heart-lung machine, which made possible the world's first successful open-heart operation at Jefferson in 1953.
- In 1978, Francis Rosato, Sr, MD, began his 22-year tenure as chairman. Under his chairmanship, Jefferson surgeons performed the Philadelphia region's first liver transplant (in 1984) and hetertopic liver transplant (in 1988). Widely reputed for his skill and experience, Dr. Rosato authored a number of text books, including one on surgery of the breast, and was instrumental in helping to establish intraoperative radiation therapy as a standard for cancer treatment.
Today, our surgeons continue to raise the bar of innovation and excellence in surgery:
- Charles J. Yeo, MD, became chairman in 2005 after 20 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Yeo's primary interests and research have been in the field of hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers and more than 90 book chapters. Dr. Yeo also popularized the mini-Whipple procedure, a modified pancreas resection that preserves the entire stomach, the pylorus and several centimeters of the upper duodenum, and results in a shorter hospital stay and fewer complications for pancreatic cancer patients. Dr. Yeo has performed 1,050 Whipple procedures (pancreaticoduodenectomy). Only one other surgeon in the United States has reached this milestone.
- Jefferson is the first hospital in Pennsylvania to offer an FDA-approved device that helps individuals with certain types of spinal cord injuries breathe on their own again. Michael Weinstein, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Jefferson, is among the first surgeons in the United States to implant the NeuRx DPS™ in patients with spinal cord injuries who lack voluntary control of their diaphragms.
- Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the first hospital in Philadelphia, and the Delaware Valley, to offer endoluminal fundoplication (ELF). Nathaniel Evans, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, performs this incisionless surgical treatment option to provide long-term elimination of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
- Jefferson is the first in the city to offer robotic esophageal mobilization surgery, using the da Vinci® Robotic System. This procedure is ideal for esophageal cancer patients who require surgery to remove all or part of their esophagus, and is performed by Drs. Nathaniel Evans, Ernest Rosato and Karen Chojnacki.
- Cataldo Doria, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Transplantation at Jefferson, assisted in the development of a "bloodless" liver resection to safely remove up to 75 percent of the largest organ in the human body. The technique is improving patients' odds and cutting recovery time in half.
- Under the direction of Paul J. DiMuzio, MD, the Jefferson Vascular Center brings together surgery, vascular medicine, wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
- The Department of Surgery is expanding its services at Methodist Hospital under the leadership of a new Chief of Surgery, Leonidas Koniaris, MD, and attending surgeon Robert McCairns.