Surgery – Page 27 – Texas Children's News

July 14, 2015

Since Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr. was made surgeon in chief five years ago, he has taken a morning each year to formally talk about the successes, challenges and goals of the Department of Surgery. This year’s talk happened July 10 in the packed Texas Children’s Hospital auditorium and focused on how far the department has come during the past five years.

“You are a tremendous department,” Fraser said to the group before delivering his presentation. “The work you are doing is extraordinary.”

Representing 600 employees and at least 9 different subspecialties, the Department of Surgery is dedicated to caring for and improving the health of children through patient care, education and research.

The department’s more than 80-member surgical team treats children in and around the greater Houston area via our five Health Centers and two, soon to be three, hospitals. The team also sees patients at other hospitals around the country and the globe.

Annually, Texas Children’s surgeons perform 25,000 operative cases and 115,000 clinic visits, including 90 fetal procedures and about 20 neurological laser ablations.

Fraser said his goal for the department has been and will continue to be three fold:

Deliver the best possible pediatric surgical care.
Be preeminent in pediatric surgical research.
Be the epicenter in educating tomorrow’s leaders in pediatric academic surgery.

In all areas, Fraser said, the department has improved. In terms of delivering the best possible pediatric surgical care, the Department of Surgery offers an expanded pallet of services, has fostered relationships with various other entities both inside and outside the hospital, and has created an organized effort to improve the quality of care provided at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The result of such efforts can be seen in the number of people visiting the Department of Surgery each year. The number of surgical outpatient visits last year was up 70 percent compared with 2009. That number was up 14 percent compared with 2013. The number of surgical cases, operating room hours and Texas Children’s Pediatric referrals also has gone up every year for the past five years.

“Our outcomes have garnered us a lot of attention,” Fraser said, highlighting the separation of conjoined twins Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata as well as Baby Audrina, who was born with her heart outside of her chest. “Your tireless effort to get the job done has paid off.”

As for research, the Department of Surgery still has room to grow. However, conducting pediatric surgical research has become an important part of the department’s portfolio, bringing in National Institutes of Health funding, seed grants and significant publications.

A product of the department’s dedication to such research is the Edmond T. Gonzales Jr., Surgical Research Day, which provides a forum for researchers to unveil their work highlighting remarkable advancements in the field of pediatric surgery. This year, almost 300 clinicians attended the event.

“We will continue to invest in research and we will continue to be good stewards of the money we receive,” Fraser said.

As for leading in educating tomorrow’s leaders in pediatric academic surgery, the Department of Surgery has made great strides, hosting several educational conferences, recognizing excellence and fostering achievement. In addition, Fraser said the department has created a distinct sense of community, participating in Texas Children’s events together, working collaboratively on setting priorities, and promoting and celebrating their own successes.

“We are one team and we are focused on the relentless pursuit of excellence,” he said at the end of his Friday talk. “Dream big, work hard and keep the faith.”

Texas Children’s Heart Center and the section of Critical Care Medicine cut the ribbon July 6 on a new, first-of-its-kind pediatric Heart Failure Intensive Care Unit. This highly-specialized 12-bed unit focuses on the treatment of children with heart failure, as well as those requiring intensive care before and after heart transplant.

“We are thrilled to be the first in the nation to offer this highly-specialized level of pediatric critical care,” said Dr. Paul Checchia, medical director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Patient outcomes will only continue to improve as we treat their unique needs in this new setting.”

Checchia and Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital, oversee the unit. Drs. Antonio Cabrera and Jack Price, associate professors of pediatrics-cardiology and critical care at Baylor, serve as associate medical directors of the unit. Shekerdemian had the honor of leading the recent ribbon cutting, which was attended by attended by the CVICU team, Heart Center leadership, Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline, Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr., Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Dr. Daniel Penny, and other Texas Children’s leaders.

“We are excited about our additional capacity and space to care for our critically ill cardiovascular patients in a less congested and more family supportive setting, said Kerry Sembera, a heart center clinical liaison.

Sembera and Gail Parazynski, assistant vice president of Critical Care, worked in collaboration with physician leadership to execute a successful intensive care room design as well as plan for safe transition of patients to this new environment. Patient Care Manager Amanada Wollam in partnership with the CVICU nursing team, were enthusiastic champions of the unit leading to a seamless transition.

The heart failure and cardiac transplantation programs at Texas Children’s Heart Center are among the largest and most successful programs in the world. More than 650 cardiomyopathy patients are cared for each year by a team of physicians, nurse coordinators and administrative personnel. When a transplant is not immediately available, a variety of circulatory support devices are used as a bridge to transplantation. Currently, Texas Children’s Heart Center is able to offer a wide range of mechanical circulatory support devices, as well as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), to children whose hearts are failing: Maquet Rotaflow, Cardiac Assist Tandem Heart, Thoratec Paracorporeal VAD (ventricular assist device), Thoratec HeartMate II, Berlin Heart EXCOR, Heartware LVAD and Syncardia Total Artificial Heart.

June 10, 2015

Formerly conjoined twin Adeline Faith Mata joined her family June 9 after being discharged from Texas Children’s Hospital. Her sister, Knatalye Hope, went home May 8, less than three months after she and Adeline underwent a successful separation surgery.

Dressed in matching striped pastel sundresses and accompanied by their 5-year-old brother, Azariah, the girls sat on their parents’ laps and smiled for cameras capturing the memorable event.

“We are so pleased with the progress of both Adeline and Knatalye following their first-of-its-kind separation surgery earlier this year,” said Dr. Darrell Cass, pediatric surgeon, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center and associate professor of surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. “They will both require additional therapies as they continue to grow, but we are thrilled with their outcomes and are optimistic they will continue to do very well.”

The Mata family will reside in Houston temporarily for follow-up appointments at the hospital before returning to their hometown of Lubbock.

“The past year has been such a whirlwind for our family and we are so thankful we can finally have both girls home with us,” said Elysse Mata, mother of the twins. “In addition to the great care our girls received, the thoughts, prayers and outpouring of love from the community really helped get us through the last year and we are grateful for everyone’s continued support.”

Knatalye and Adeline were born on April 11 at 3:41 a.m. at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, estimated to weigh 3 pounds, 7 ounces each. Delivered via Caesarean-section at 31 weeks gestation, Knatalye and Adeline were welcomed by their parents, Elysse and John Eric Mata, and their older brother, Azariah.

The family learned during a routine ultrasound on Jan. 13, 2014 that Elysse was carrying twins and they were conjoined. Subsequently, the family was referred to Texas Children’s Fetal Center where they underwent extensive prenatal imaging, multidisciplinary consultation and development of plans to achieve a safe delivery and postnatal care.

The girls spent the first 10 months of their lives in the Level IV neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children’s. In December 2014, they underwent chest and abdomen area. The tissue expanders helped to stretch their skin in preparation for the separation surgery.

During their historic separation surgery in February, a team of more than 26 clinicians including 12 surgeons, six anesthesiologists and eight surgical nurses, among others, worked together to separate the girls who shared a chest wall, lungs, pericardial sac (the lining of the heart), diaphragm, liver, intestines, colon and pelvis. During the complex surgery, the team worked for approximately 23 hours on Knatalye and 26 hours on Adeline with the official separation occurring approximately 18 hours into the surgery. Among the surgical subspecialties involved were pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, urology, liver transplant surgery, orthopedic surgery and pediatric gynecology.

Following their separation surgery, the girls were cared for by a multidisciplinary team in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit before moving to lower-acuity units prior to discharge. Both girls also underwent additional surgeries including the removal of rods from their pelvises and the placement of a gastrostomy button in each girl. Adeline also underwent a tracheostomy surgery in April to aid in her breathing and lung development and was discharged on a ventilator to provide additional breathing support. Knatalye and Adeline continue to receive physical and occupational therapy after recovering from surgery and will be carefully followed by pediatric subspecialty experts.

“When I first met the Mata family and learned of the diagnosis, I was optimistic we would have a positive outcome,” Cass said. “It is with great joy to watch them leave the hospital and I look forward to the day Elysse shares with me pictures of them walking into kindergarten together.”

June 1, 2015

Bench and Bedside is a digest of the previous month’s stories about the clinical and academic activities of our physicians and scientists. We welcome your submissions and feedback.

May 27

New machine helps opthalmologists detect early signs of vision loss or problems

Texas Children’s has a new machine, called Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which allows pediatric opthalmologists to evaluate for retinal diseases, uvetis and optic nerve disorders. The OCT is an imaging tool that is similar to ultrasound but uses light waves instead of sound waves to create high resolution images of the retina and optic nerve. The Ophthalmology Division at Texas Children’s Hospital is one of the premier pediatric opthalmology surgery programs in the nation with exceptional expertise depth and quality of services and patient volumes. Read more

May 21

Texas Children’s hosts 25th Annual ECMO Conference

More than 125 people recently attended the 25th Annual Specialist Education in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Conference organized, in part, by Texas Children’s Hospital. Neonatologists, critical care physicians, surgeons, nurse and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) specialists gathered for three days in the Texas Medical Center to exchange information and ideas about the technique that can provide both cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose hearts and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of blood flow and oxygen to sustain life. Read more

May 21

Society of Pediatric Radiology honors imaging researchers with prestigious award

Imaging Researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine won the prestigious Pilot Award at the national meeting of the Society of Pediatric Radiology in Seattle where the Texas Children’s team presented 10 posters and 24 scientific abstracts. The team’s abstracts represented almost 20 percent of all those podium presentations accepted from departments around the globe. It is the largest number of scientific abstracts accepted for oral presentations from a single institution at the national meeting. Read more

May 19

Texas Children’s Surgical Team honored at the Texas Capitol

The Texas Children’s surgical team that facilitated the separation surgery of the conjoined Mata twins was honored at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Dr. Darrell Cass, Dr. Larry Hollier and Head OR Nurse Audra Rushing were all recognized on the floor of the State House and the State Senate for their outstanding leadership in preparing for, and successfully executing, the historic separation surgery that occurred for the first time in the Houston area in nearly 20 years. Read more

May 15

Sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Surgical Research Day highlights advancements in field of pediatiric surgery

Almost 300 clinicians in the Department of Surgery attended the sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Jr. Surgical Research Day at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women on May 8. The event provided a forum for researchers to unveil their work highlighting remarkable advancements in the field of pediatric surgery. The program featured seven oral presentations and 96 poster presentations spotlighting the academic efforts of the surgical faculty, post graduate fellows, nurses and advanced practice providers. Read more

May 14

Professional organization names award after Texas Children’s otolaryngologist

The American Broncho-Esophagological Association (ABEA) recently honored Dr. Ellen Friedman by renaming its Presidential Citation for Excellence in Foreign Body Management to the Ellen M. Friedman Award for Excellence in Foreign Body Management. Read more

May 14

Dr. Shaine Morris awarded prestigious K23 grant from the National Institutes of Health

Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Shaine Morris was recently honored with a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal of the award is to bring recipients to the point where they are able to conduct their research independently and are competitive for major grant support through career development. Read more

May 13

Two NRI researchers among 2015 Debakey Research Award honorees

Two researchers from the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s, Dr. Benjamin Doneen and Dr. Olivier Lichtarge, were among the five Baylor College of Medicine faculty members honored with the 2015 Michael E. Debakey, M.D. Excellence in Research Award. Read more

May 13

Texas Children’s Hospital honors Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients

Three surgeons from the Department of Surgery recently received the Distinguished Surgeon Award. This year’s recipients are Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier, Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr. and Dr. David E. Wesson. Read more

May 12

Formerly conjoined twin discharged from hospital

Less than three months after being separated from her twin sister in a 26-hour operation at Texas Children’s Hospital Knatalye Hope Mata was released to the care of her family, just in time for Mother’s Day. Read more

May 8

Dr. John Dormans joins Texas Children’s as chief of Orthopedics

Dr. John Dormans is the new chief of Orthopedics. He also will serve as a professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He has been a clinician and leader at CHOP, serving as the hospital’s chief of orthopedic surgery from 1996 to 2014 and as president of the medical staff and president of Children’s Surgical Associates for four three-year terms. He focused his clinical work on pediatric spinal deformity and musculoskeletal tumors. Read more

May 19, 2015

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The Texas Children’s surgical team that facilitated the separation surgery of the conjoined Mata twins was honored at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Dr. Darrell Cass, Dr. Larry Hollier and Head OR Nurse, Audra Rushing, were all recognized on the floor of the State House and the State Senate for their outstanding leadership in preparing for, and successfully executing, the historic separation surgery that occurred for the first time in the Houston area in nearly 20 years. They were also joined by Elysse Mata, the mother of the twins, and members of her family. Houston area State Representative Armando Walle introduced the resolution in the House and recognized the team and family on the House floor while Houston area State Senator Joan Huffman introduced the resolution in the Senate where they were lauded with applause from the Senate gallery.

Click here to see the video of the house presentation of the resolution. (Texas Children’s honored at 26:30)

The Texas Children’s Government Relations team utilized this opportunity to highlight the excellent care provided at Texas Children’s Hospital and the need for increased state funding for children’s hospitals. After the ceremonies, the team met with key State legislators who will be instrumental in crafting the State’s budget for the next two years including State Representative Four Price, State Representative Sarah Davis, State Senator Charles Schwertner, and State Senator Paul Bettencourt.

A link to the House resolution can be found here and a link to the Senate Resolution can be found here.

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Texas Children’s Hospital is proud to announce its second annual Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients. With this award, we honor leaders who forged a path of innovation in surgical excellence, research and education at Texas Children’s Hospital. Leadership in the Department of Surgery chose the recipients and announced this year’s winners May 8 at the department’s annual faculty dinner. A permanent installation honoring all Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients will soon be near the main OR on the third floor of Abercrombie.

This year’s Distinguished Surgeon Award winners are:

Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier
O. H. “Bud” Frazier is a pioneer in developing mechanical assist circulatory devices to treat severe heart failure, and a leader in the fields of heart transplantation and circulatory support. He has performed more than 1,200 heart transplants and implanted more than 700 left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), more than any other surgeon in the world. He is currently Chief, Center for Cardiac Support; Director, Cardiovascular Surgery Research; and Co-director, Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratories at Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Frazier was instrumental in helping Texas Children’s Hospital to develop a pediatric heart transplant service. When a six-month-old infant girl was dying of heart failure in 1984, Dr. Frazier proposed a procedure that had never before been done in an infant: a heart transplant. Dr. Frazier engineered obtaining a donor heart, and with lead surgeon, Dr. Denton Cooley, the two made history at Texas Children’s Hospital on November 11 of that year when they implanted a new heart into the infant’s chest. This surgery opened the way for heart transplants to be performed in small children.

Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr.
Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr. has been an integral part of the leadership and development in the Texas Children’s Hospital Department of Surgery, as well as a distinguished surgeon in the field of Pediatric Urology. Dr. Gonzales was the chief of Urology at Texas Children’s from 1974 to 2012. He was named Chief of Surgery serving from 1988 to 2010 and was the hospital’s first Surgeon-in-Chief, guiding surgical efforts from 2008 to 2010. He was then named the first Director of Surgery at Texas Children’s West Campus from 2010 to 2014. In his nearly 40 years at Texas Children’s, Dr. Gonzales has established a legacy of excellence for which the hospital and Baylor College of Medicine honored him by creating The Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr., MD, Chair in Pediatric Urology which he held from 2004 to 2012. A strong belief in advanced training for young surgeons led Dr. Gonzales to become a leader in the establishment and expansion of pediatric urology fellowship programs across the country. Together with a group of colleagues, he created an organized approach to selecting fellows and increasing the number of fellowships available. The American Urological Association manages fellowships today based on this work. As a result, pediatric urology fellowship positions have more than quadrupled since the early 1980s.

Dr. David E. Wesson
Dr. David E. Wesson is Associate Surgeon-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Wesson is well known internationally for participating in some of the earliest definitive studies on the non-operative treatment of solid organ injuries in children. His research brought about a new method of treating splenic trauma nonoperatively, and resulted in this protocol becoming the standard of care not only for children but also for all age groups.

In 1997, Dr. Wesson was appointed chief of Pediatric Surgery at Texas Children’s, a position he held until 2012. After arriving at Texas Children’s, building a superior trauma program became a goal. He recruited pediatric surgical subspecialists with the ability to care for children with a broad spectrum of traumatic injuries and continues to serve as a mentor to trauma residents and fellows. He led the effort to attain Level I accreditation for the Texas Children’s Hospital Trauma Center, and he served as its director from 2007 to 2014. He was also instrumental in building other programs such as the Texas Children’s Fetal Center, bariatric surgery and surgical oncology.

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Almost 300 clinicians in the Department of Surgery attended the sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Jr., Surgical Research Day at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women on May 8. The event provided a forum for researchers to unveil their work highlighting remarkable advancements in the field of pediatric surgery.

“I look forward to this day every year,” said Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Our surgeons, residents and students are conducting innovative work that should contribute to better understanding of health issues that our patients experience. Their research is central to our core values as academic surgeons at Texas Children’s Hospital.”

The program featured seven oral presentations and 96 poster presentations spotlighting the academic efforts of the surgical faculty, post graduate fellows, nurses and advanced practice providers. In addition, lectures were given on surgical issues and awards were presented to honor faculty and research presentations.

This year’s awards and their recipients are:

The Samuel Stal Research Award for outstanding research by a resident or fellow in the Department of Surgery was presented to Dr. Yan Shi. The award is named after Dr. Samuel Stal, former chief of plastic surgery at Texas Children’s. Dr. Shi was recognized for his research in liver carcinoma.
Dr. Larry Hollier, chief of Plastic Surgery, was honored with the Faculty Research Mentor Award. The award is given on an annual basis to honor a Department of Surgery faculty member who currently serves as a research through career development, professional guidance or cultivation of research interests.
Dr. Paulette Abbas, research fellow in Pediatric Surgery, received the Best Poster award for, “Persistent Hypercarbia after Resuscitation Is Associated with Increased Mortality in Congenital Diaphragm Hernia Patients.”
Dr. Adesola C. Akinkuotu, research fellow in Pediatric Surgery, received the Best Oral Presentation award for her research, “Risk Stratification of Severity for Infants with CDH: Prenatal vs. Postnatal Predictors of Outcome.”

This year’s speakers were:

This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Tom Jaksic, the W. Hardy Hendren Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is also Vice Chairman of Pediatric General Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and Surgical Director, Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation. He presented research on the metabolism of critically ill neonates and the management of children with intestinal failure.
Dr. Laurence McCullough, Dalton Tomlin chair in Medical Ethics and Health Policy, associate director for Education, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine, presented a lecture on the professional responsibility of surgical innovation, research and treatment.

The Surgical Research Day Planning Committee included Dr. Jed Nuchtern (chair), Melinda Mathis (co-chair), Dr. Jennifer Dietrich, Dr. Chester Koh, Dr. Sandi Lam, Dr. Carlos Mery, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, Kathy Carberry, Matthew Girotto, Veronica Victorian, Shon Bower and Laura Higgins.

View more pictures of the Edmond T. Gonzales Surgical Research Day:

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