Department of Surgery Research Day

Our annual departmental Research Day took place on Thursday, June 6th, and was moderated by Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FACS, associate professor and vice chair of research. We had an entire half-day filled with fantastic presentations that detailed much of the ongoing research – Basic Science and Clinical – taking place within the department.

Stulberg’s opening address gave insight into the research opportunities here at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. It shed light on some of the major activities within the Department of Surgery.

On the faculty side, Curtis Wray, MD, professor of surgery, discussed his ongoing work with the advanced gastroenterology and oncology departments. Together, their team has many ongoing clinical trials investigating novel techniques to treat pancreatic cancer, which continues to be one of the most aggressive forms of cancer worldwide. This highlighted the benefit of inter- and intra-departmental collaboration, and everyone in the audience is still trying to figure out how to leverage the abscopal effect in their works!

We had eleven residents present their work, representing a variety of surgical specialties.

Kelly Sanders, DO, took 1^st Place in the Clinical Research category for her project titled “Exposure to statin therapy decreases the incidence of venous thromboembolism after trauma.” She was mentored by Bryan Cotton, MD, MPH, FACS, Program Director of the Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Programs, and Jessica C. Cardenas, PhD.

Robert Seniors, MD, was awarded 1^st Place in the Basic Science category. His work, under the mentorship of Scott LeMaire, MD, was titled “Increased Expression of Large Proteoglycans in Aortic Cells in Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Dissection: Insights from Single Cell Transcriptome Analysis of Human and Mouse Aortas.”

A list of all of the other Resident Presentations can be found here:

Name	Mentor	Title
Janet Ashley, MD	Charles S. Cox, Jr., MD	Serum Biomarkers to Predict ICP Therapeutic Intensity After Severe TBI
Neha Malik, MD	Christina L. Roland, MD, MS, FACS	Timing and Frequency of Surveillance After Resection of Extremity and Trunk Soft-Tissue Sarcoma – Identifying Opportunities for Improvement
Chioma Obinero, MD	Matthew R. Greives, MD, MS, FACS	What did we catch? Predictors of infection after tissue expander-based breast reconstruction infection in a safety-net system.
Mike Eisenberg, MD	Mara Antanoff, MD, FACS	Survival Outcomes After Resection in Clinical T1a-b Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer with Occult Nodal Disease
Krysta Sutyak, DO	KuoJen Tsao, MD	Clinical and Financial Win: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Povidone-Iodine Irrigation in Pediatric Appendicitis Utilizing the Pediatric Health Information System Database
Mokunfayo Fajemisin, MD	Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS	Poor Oral Health Is Associated with Social Vulnerability in Critically Ill Trauma Patients
James Klugh, MD	John A. Harvin, MD, FACS	Ketamine For Acute Pain After Trauma (KAPT): a Pragmatic, Randomized Clinical Trial
Mabel Luciano, MD	Jessica Buicko Lopez, MD	Assessing The Relationship Between Financial Toxicity and Adverse Outcomes in Thyroid Cancer
Kylie Holden, MD, MS	Matthew T. Harting, MD, MS	Understanding combined congenital heart disease and congenital diaphragmatic hernia: prevalence, outcomes, and surgical optimization: A multi-institutional analysis.

As usual, we also had an impressive showing from the medical students, who were very well represented. They presented some high-quality work and served as a reminder that there is a lot of research activity within the department for those interested.

A complete list of Medical Student Presentations is listed here:

• Intraperitoneal Infiltration of Exparel Reduces Postoperative Pain and the Need for Opioids Following Laparoscopic Hiatal Hernia Repair with Fundopexy- Anthony Basta, MS3 (Mentored by Farzaneh Banki, MD)
• Thromboelastography 6S Platelet Mapping in Pediatric Patients with Congenital Heart Disease Undergoing Cardiac Catheterization on Aspirin- Atharwa Mankame, MS4 (Mentored by Charles Cox, MD)
• 1000 Hiatal Hernia Repairs Beyond a Decade Path of a Single Surgical Team to Improve Outcomes- Clarissa Hoffman, MS2 (Mentored by Farzaneh Banki, MD)

 

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