				search

Surgeons In the News 2010

Tomoaki Kato, MD, Robert Brown, MD, and Jean Emond, MD are featured in Innovations in Liver Transplantation, an online Information TV program. They discuss the role of liver transplantation in treating adults with hepatatis C and liver cancer, and children with biliary atresia and other liver diseases. Through interviews and patient profiles, the program clearly explains advances such as living donor liver transplantation and laparoscopic donor surgery.
On September 12, 2010, Dr. James Guarrera appeared on a Fox-TV special on cancer and Patient advocacy along with one of his patients. The segment focused on the role of the patient advocate for patients facing chronic illness. The piece included Scot Henry, PhD, and the team in the Molecular Therapies and Organ Preservation Lab in the Division of Surgical Science.
On September 7, 2010 Barbara Walters appeared on ABC's The View discussing her open-heart valve replacement surgery, expressing thanks to all of her NYPH/Columbia clinicians, including Dr. Craig R. Smith, who performed the operation.
In an August 9, 2010 article, The New York Times told the dramatic account of heart patient and upstate New York resident, Christian Volpe. Last December, when the batteries on Mr. Volpe's LVAD nearly ran out, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia nurse practitioner Khristine Orlanes arranged for nearby LVAD patient Robert Bump to bring him fresh batteries. Coincidentally both men returned to NYPH/Columbia for heart transplants in late July and had the chance to meet again. Their transplant surgeries were performed by Drs. Mathew Williams and Hiroo Takayama. Dr. Yoshifumi Naka was also mentioned in the story, which was picked up by other news media as far away as India.
Dr. Stewart and his patient Greg O'Keeffe were interviewed in a segment on the Fox TV July 24, 2010 edition of Street Talk. The two discussed Greg's aortic aneurysm surgery and his and Dr. Stewart's participation in the July 18, 2010 New York City Triathalon. The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the New Jersey Star-Ledger and several online outlets covered the story.
A July 18, 2010 New York Times article entitled Surgeon Who Repaired Racer's Heart Joins Him as He Puts It to the Test profiled the dramatic story of two 2010 New York City Triathalon contestants: Columbia aortic surgeon Allan Stewart, MD, and Stewart's 28-year-old former patient Greg O'Keeffe. The article told how Dr. Stewart performed lifesaving surgery on Mr. O'Keeffe's congenital aortic defect, and how, less than two years later, Mr. O'Keeffe decided to compete in the triathalon, challenging Dr. Stewart to compete as well. Against the odds of a busy career and a semi-sedentary lifestyle, Dr. Stewart completed the triathalon, consisting of a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bicycle ride and a 10-kilometer run. The article quoted Dr. Stewart as saying that Mr. O'Keeffe returned the favor of saving his life, "I don't know who saved whose heart more," he said.
The June 30 New York Daily News ran a story about a lifesaving liver transplant performed by Dr. Kato on a two-month-old New York infant with advanced liver failure. One of the smallest babies ever to successfully receive a liver transplant, the child weighed 4 pounds at the time of the surgery. In the weeks after being born 10 weeks premature on December 3, 2010, the patient was referred to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center where she was diagnosed with an irreversible liver injury of unknown origin. Cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit, she was on a ventilator and had dangerous fluid buildup in her abdomen and difficulty feeding. She was on the organ waitlist for two weeks before a replacement organ became available. Read more about the surgery and the child's recovery.
Dr. Beth Schrope provided a comment for a June 15, 2010 MSNBC.com story about a research study that found weight loss outcomes are better when two members of the same family undergo gastric bypass surgery.
On July 14, 2010, Dr. Stewart appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show as part of a breaking news interview with Dick Cheney regarding his heart failure and related surgery. In his 10-minute discussion with Maddow, Dr. Stewart discusses the LVAD device implanted to assist Cheney's heart.

Columbia Surgeons are New York Magazine 2010 Top Doctors

Twelve faculty members from the Columbia University Department of Surgery have been named to New York magazine's 2010 list of Best Doctors.

The June 6, 2010 New York magazine Best Doctors issue included a profile of Tomoaki Kato, MD, featuring a multi-organ auto transplant he led to rid a 63- year-old woman of a baseball-sized leiomyosarcoma tumor on her abdominal aorta. The tumor was also wrapped around two other major arteries. The team temporarily removed the abdominal organs. In removing the tumor they excised four inches of vena cava and three inches of aorta, replacing the vessel tissue with grafts. The operation required seven surgeons and two anesthesiologists; the patient went home after three weeks in the hospital.
Dr. Benjamin Samstein, a pioneer in minimally invasive liver donor surgery (hepatectomy), appeared on an ABC News Healthfirst segment on May 27, 2010. The segment profiled a father who donated a portion of his liver to his young child, who suffered from liver failure. Until recently, living donor hepatectomy involved a 25 centimeter incision extending from chest to navel. Newly introduced minimally invasive donor surgery involves several 1-inch incisions instead. The result is much less pain and recovery time for the donor. The procedure is a boon for living liver donors, who are often a parent donating a portion of their liver to their child—a parent who must care for the child immediately after surgery. The story was also covered by more than 20 CBS affiliate stations nationwide. Make sure the item on livermd.org matches.
On May 20, 2010 the New York Post's "Page Six" column ran a mention of Dr. Mathew Williams and a double heart valve replacement he performed on Martha Johnson, who happens to be the mother of a "Page Six" editor. Referring to the procedure, the column lavished praise upon NYP/Columbia's work, referring to Dr. Williams as a "top-gun surgeon" overseeing a "crack team at Columbia-Presbyterian (sic)." The column went on to say, "No wonder it's the hospital of choice for such other cardiac patients as Ed Koch, David Letterman and Bill Clinton."
Multi-organ transplant recipient Kristin Molini appeared live on the May 3, 2010 CBS Early Show along with her mother and father one year after her lifesaving surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Dr. Tomoaki Kato performed the 13-hour procedure. The segment was rebroadcast on several affiliate stations across the country. Read more about Ms. Molini's operation.
On April 29, 2010, the United Press reported on a blood test that detects rejection of heart grafts. The genetic test, co-developed Dr. Mario Deng in 2005, provides an alternative for invasive heart muscle biopsies in heart transplantation patients.
Dr. Grant was interviewed for an April 4, 2010 PopEater.com article about Botox use by celebrities. Referring to Dr. Grant as "New York's top plastic surgeon" the article noted that he treats celebrities (although he does not share details of which ones). "Women in Hollywood are getting procedures earlier and younger than the average cosmetic patient," he said. "You need to begin a global approach to aging in your twenties, or even as a teenager, using sun block, seeing an aesthetician, applying topical remedies to rejuvenate skin to keep it as healthy as it can be," adding, "We want to be able to not over-treat people so they don't have the ability to emote."
Dr. Robert McConnell, Co-Director of the New York Thyroid Center provided a comment for a March 12, 2010 The New York Times article regarding New York Mets baseball player Jose Reyes' hyperthyroid condition and whether he will miss the upcoming baseball season. Dr. McConnell said change in the levels of thyroid hormones is not unusual and that levels usually return to normal on their own.
Dr. Kato appeared on the March 11, 2010 NBC Today Show in a segment about the multi-organ abdominal surgery he and his surgical team performed on Heather McNamara to remove a baseball-sized tumor during February 2010. The 8-year-old girl was released from NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital on March 11. The story was also covered on Fox News, CNN, and in New York Newsday, the New York Daily News, and USA Today.
An article in the March 9, 2010 NCI Cancer Bulletin focusing on the effects of targeted cancer therapies on the heart included a comment from Columbia Clinical Breast Cancer Program medical oncologist Dawn Hershman, MD, MS who explained that in patients with more advanced cancer who are candidates for treatment with agents that have been linked with cardiac side effects, the anticancer benefit tends to outweigh the potential risks. "But now we're treating more patients with earlier stage disease, with a low recurrence risk and high survival probability, so long-term effects become a much bigger deal," she said.
Dr. Sheldon Feldman provided comments for a March 4 New York Daily News story about new research presenting evidence that freezing malignant breast tumors helps stop the spread of cancer. Dr. Feldman called the technique promising but stressed that it is still in the research stages.
During the week of March 1, 2010, Columbia Clinical Breast Cancer Program medical oncologist Dawn Hershman, MD, MS, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times story about her study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, that found acupuncture may help relieve joint pain associated with breast cancer treatment.
During the week of February 22, 2010, New York Newsday included a story about Jericho, N.Y., resident Harvey Yaris, who celebrated the one year anniversary of receiving a heart and kidney transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. The procedure took place on Valentine's Day in 2009.
An article on thyroid issues in women in the February, 2010 issue of Marie Claire included comments from James A. Lee, MD.
The February 22, 2010 New York Times published an article about auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation, in which a portion of a liver is transplanted into the body of a patient with liver failure, usually a child, and the patient's own (native) liver is retained in place. The transplanted liver supports the patient until the native liver recovers, and immune-suppressing drugs to protect the transplant from the patient's immune system are administered. Once the native liver recovers, immunosuppression is stopped and the transplant liver is attacked and absorbed by the immune system. The great benefit of the procedure is that the patient must only take immunosuppressant drugs until their own liver recovers, although not all cases of acute liver failure do recover, and those patients rely on their transplanted liver and require immunosuppression for life.

The Times article focused on the case of NYPH/Columbia Patient Jonathan Nuñez, whose liver failed at when he was eight months old. Tomoaki Kato, MD, then at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, performed auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation surgery on Jonathan in 2006. Jonathan is now a healthy four-year-old, who is immunosuppressant free. Dr. Kato, who came to Columbia's Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation in 2008, was highlighted in the article as one of the few surgeons who perform the lengthy and complex procedure. The story was republished by the Web sites of the Times of India and the Gainesville Sun.
The February 2, 2010 New York Times profiled the recovery of Robert Collison, the Wisconsin man who underwent a marathon 43-hour ex-vivo surgery performed by Dr. Kato and a Columbia surgical team on December 8, 2009. Mr. Collison's recovery from the operation to remove a football-size tumor in his abdomen is proceeding steadily, according to the article. One of the largest hurdles was recovery of his liver, which was embedded with the tumor. Released from the hospital during the last week of January, 2010, Mr. Collison was expected to stay in New York for about two weeks for check-ups before returning to his home near Milwaukee.
On January 26, 2010, the United Press International reported on a liver preservation clinical study conducted by Dr. James Guarrera, Principal Investigator, and Columbia investigators. Outcomes of the study suggest that utilization of a technique called hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) to preserve livers pre-transplant may improve patient outcomes in comparison to the traditional storage technique, in which organs are preserved on ice prior to transplantation. CS has been the standard technique for the 20 years.
On Jan. 23, 2010 ABC World News Tonight ran a segment featuring NYPH/Columbia LVAD recipient Richard Stowe in the context of the recent approval of the HeartMate II LVAD system as a permanent therapy for patients with advanced heart failure. Ulrich Jorde, MD, Medical Director of the Mechanical Assist Device Program, was interviewed on the segment. NYP/Columbia surgeons and cardiologists have played a key role in bringing this and other LVAD devices into common use as a 'destination therapy.' In a companion article published on abcnews.com, Dr. Jorde said, "We're talking about a 50 percent survival benefit, which is a major breakthrough . . . It could save the lives of 10, 000 Americans a year. Not only saving lives. But returning patients to full, active lives."
The January 19, 2010 issue of The Oprah Magazine ran a feature on a cardiac surgical-interventional aortic valve replacement operation performed by a team including Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Mathew Williams, and Chief Resident Dr. Ryan Davies.

At the turn of the 2010 New Year, Fox News and the New York Daily News reported on the promising recovery of a patient who received an unprecedented five-organ transplant in May 2009.

The procedure was performed by a Columbia surgical team headed by Dr. Tomoaki Kato. The 22-year-old patient, Kristin Molini, was near death from a rare medical condition known as intestinal dysmotility when she received a new liver, stomach, pancreas, and large and small intestines in a 13-hour operation. The Columbia surgical team included three surgeons, two anesthesiologists, and four nurses. According to the article, only 300 such surgeries have been performed worldwide since the 1980s. "It's still a very uncommon surgery," said Dr. Kato, "This is considered very high-risk." Media coverage for the multiple transplant included Fox News (December 31, 2009) and the New York Daily News (January 1, 2010).