Surgery

The Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization has honored five faculty members as 2024 Master Innovators for their groundbreaking research and transformative innovations. These pioneers, recognized for achievements spanning patents, startups and impactful technologies, exemplify Vanderbilt's dedication to translating academic excellence into societal advancements. Read More

Obesity and two post-operative complications linked with it have associated genetic variants in common, suggesting that obesity may be the culprit. Read More

Robert Freundlich and colleagues analyzed records for nearly 1.2 million patients and found that, among patients who died within 30 days of surgery, one in five had a complication independently associated with mortality. Read More

An inhibitor of cell metabolism may be a good therapeutic target for neuroblastoma, which accounts for about 15 percent of pediatric cancer-related deaths. Read More

An estimated 5 billion people — two-thirds of the world’s population — do not have access to surgery because of a lack of facilities, money and trained surgeons and anesthesiologists. Read More

John Sawyers, M.D., whose decades-long career as a surgeon culminated in the chairmanship of the Vanderbilt Section of Surgical Sciences from 1983 to 1995, died Friday, March 18. He was 90. Dr. Sawyers was known for his surgical skill and his steady manner both in the operating… Read More

A new surgical procedure could offer a simpler approach to achieve some of the same weight-loss and metabolic benefits associated with gastric bypass surgery, researchers at VUMC report. Read More

Stuffed animals that pediatric patients bring to the operating room are a reservoir of bacteria that can be effectively sterilized in a household washer/dryer the day before surgery. Read More

In the foreseeable future, robots will be sticking steerable needles in your brain to remove blood clots; capsule robots will be crawling up your colon as a painless replacement for the colonoscopy; and ultra-miniaturized snake robots will remove tumors from your bladder and other body cavities. Read More

An antioxidant enzyme also functions as a tumor suppressor to limit cancer development in the esophagus. Read More

A team led by Vanderbilt University biomedical engineer Michael Miga, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology and Radiological Sciences, and Neurological Surgery, has been awarded a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to enhance image-guided surgery techniques for safely removing liver tumors. Read More

An interdisciplinary collaboration of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities has designed a robotic microsurgery system specifically designed to treat bladder cancer, the sixth most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat. Read More

Archived tissue samples are yielding new disease biomarkers. Read More

A new study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators found that obese patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer spent more time in the operating room, adding to the nation’s health care bill. Read More

The American Board of Thoracic Surgery has elected two Vanderbilt surgeons to its 17-member board of directors. Read More

The stomach bug Helicobacter pylori increases forms of a protein that promote tumor development, perhaps explaining how it elevates risk for gastric cancer. Read More

Patient handovers matter. A lot. That’s the conclusion from Vanderbilt researchers who reviewed three years of patient data and found that major complications occurring within 24 hours after cardiac surgery were cut in half following the adoption of an improved handover process. Read More

Second-year General Surgery resident Anji Wall, M.D., Ph.D., hasn’t yet decided her surgical specialty, but she’s already written the book on ethics and international medicine, literally. Read More

Dysfunction or loss of an “antioxidant” enzyme may lead to higher risk for esophageal cancer in patients with gastric reflux disease. Read More

Obesity increases the risk of acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Read More