Overview

Washington University surgeons in the Section of Acute and Critical Care Surgery provide care to critically ill and injured patients as part of a nationally recognized trauma center. They also perform research to advance the care of these patients and offer fellowship training in surgical critical care.

Surgeons in this section provide care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which serves as a regional referral center for critically ill patients and has been designated a Level I Trauma Center by the State of Missouri. The hospital also has earned Level I verification from the American College of Surgeons – the highest national recognition a trauma center can receive.

In addition to patient care, surgeons in this section perform leading research into critical care issues. Recent studies suggested solutions to two of the most common and dangerous patient safety challenges in the ICU: restoring normal phosphorus levels and preventing infections caused by catheters. Surgeons also are playing major roles in projects examining the genetic predisposition to sepsis (spread of bacteria from a focus of infection) and the role of genomic research in helping explain the body’s response to critical illness and traumatic injuries.

The section plays an active role in graduate medical education through both the General Surgery Residency Program and the Surgery Critical Care Fellowship Program. Surgeons train general surgery residents who rotate through the critical care service. Residents who go on to train as surgical critical care fellows are exposed to a large and diverse patient population, treating a substantial number of very complicated cases on the surgical and other ICUs. (The medical school also offers an Anesthesiology Critical Care Fellowship.)

In recent years, the section’s surgeons have served as presidents of major medical associations including the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Association for Academic Surgery.

Please browse our web site to learn more about patient care, teaching and research programs in the Section of Acute and Critical Care Surgery.