Surgery News

Improving Care for our Tiniest Patients

Dr. George Mychaliska and U-M’s Artificial Placenta

This year, more than half a million babies will be born prematurely in the United States, and while medical advances have improved the outlook for these infants, prematurity continues to be the leading cause of death for newborns. As director of U-M’s Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center, pediatric and fetal surgeon Dr. George Mychaliska understands the unique and essential role the uterine environment plays in fetal development.
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A Letter from the Chair

Welcome to the spring edition of In the Loupes. I hope all of the friends of the Department of Surgery had a wonderful holiday season and that you are enjoying 2012 so far.
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Medical Innovation Center to Convene Global Summit on Biomedical Innovation

U-M’s Medical Innovation Center (MIC) will host its inaugural biomedical innovation summit, “Achieving Global Biomedical Innovation for Children,” March 20-22, 2012. Global participants from industry, academia, and government will converge to hear about new pediatric device, diagnostic and therapeutic success stories; develop strategies for overcoming commercial barriers; and collaboratively design solutions to emerging pediatric clinical markets.
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Growing Replacement Parts:
U-M’s Tissue Engineering

The notion that one day scientists will manufacture new body parts in the laboratory for patients who need them still seems like the kind of futuristic musings found in science fiction movies – right alongside teleportation and invisibility cloaks. But according to Dr. Scott Hollister, U-M professor of biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, and surgery, lab-made body parts are not only possible, but their use in patients has already started and will likely accelerate in the future.
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Patients tucked into beds at new facility after massive move effort

As the last patient cleared a designated 800-foot patient pathway, staff, faculty and volunteers broke into cheers, tears and many, many hugs.

Years in the making, the much anticipated Move Day came to a close much earlier than anyone imagined.

It ended at 3 p.m. with an adult patient, the last of 166, making the journey down a closed, protected pathway into a sparkly new spacious facility.

The move was carefully choreographed and rehearsed. The payoff was obvious as the last patient moved hours before anticipated.
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U-M hospitals win award for being among the nation’s safest

The University of Michigan hospitals are among the safest and most effective hospitals in the country, according to a new national ranking from the respected independent health care quality rating organization, The Leapfrog Group. This is the second year in a row, and third year overall, that Leapfrog named the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers a top hospital.
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Former UM football player gives gift of life to his dad

When Dave Knight had the chance to play for Lloyd Carr, he gave it his all to be part of a winning Michigan Wolverine football squad.

But in 2010, 24 years later, he was again called to U-M. This time, he would be the champion, not to win a football game, but instead to help someone he loved continue to play the most important game — the game of life.
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Underlying Health Affects Melanoma

People’s underlying health — not their age — has a bigger effect on how well they’ll do after a diagnosis of advanced skin cancer, a new study finds.

People who are frail and in poor health, even if they are young, do worse than older people in good health, say researchers with the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Health experts say the study could lead to better ways to treat other illnesses as well.

“We underestimate the role played by the patient’s health, yet our results show that the body’s ability to fight the disease is more important than age,” says surgeon Michael Sabel, M.D., lead author of the paper.
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U-M surgeon named president of Michigan surgeons group

University of Michigan surgeon Gerard Doherty, M.D., was elected president of the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, a group aimed at improving care for surgical patients and maintaining high standards for surgical practice and education.
Doherty is vice chair of the U-M Department of Surgery, section head of General Surgery and the Norman Thompson Professor of Surgery at the U-M Medical School.

He has worked in the administration of ACS and on several educational and cancer projects for the group. He is also on the executive committee and is the finance chair of the College’s oncology group.
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Doctor experience matters in carotid artery procedures

U-M Cardiovascular Center study shows older patients who undergo procedure by less experienced physicians have higher death risk

Preventing a stroke by placing a stent in the carotid artery, a major artery of the head and neck, is a procedure that’s skyrocketed in the United States, but new research shows the outcomes can be deadly if older patients are not in the right hands.
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