Historical SummaryCurrent Faculty

 Historical Summary, Prior Chairmen

The heritage of vascular surgery at Emory University began with its first Chief of Surgery, Daniel Elkin, who directed the department from 1930-1955. Dr. Elkin was a graduate of the Emory University School of Medicine and completed his surgical residency under Harvey Cushing at the Brigham Hospital in Boston with whom he co-authored his first publication in 1924 focusing on the management of a patient with a cirscoid aneurysm of the scalp. Along with Rudolph Matas, Dr. Elkin can rightfully be considered one of the original fathers of vascular surgery in the United States. In 1934, he published a remarkable report detailing the surgical treatment of a series of 62 aneurysms and subsequently described the largest collection of patients with penetrating trauma of the heart that were successfully managed by surgical intervention. At the 1940 Annual Meeting of the American Surgical Association he reported successful treatment of a patient with a symptomatic infrarenal aortic aneurysm. The patient was alive 11 months after the procedure and represented only one of six patients in the literature to have survived a period longer than six months after aortic ligation. He was a prolific author throughout the 30s, 40s, and early 50s, and his lasting contributions include his description of pericadiocentesis for cardiac tamponade and his popularization of what are now considered standard operative exposures of vascular structures including the proximal subclavian and innominate arteries, the peroneal artery, and the intraosseous portion of the vertebral body.

Vascular surgery in the era following Dr. Elkin was very much influenced by Dr. Garland Perdue. After serving as a member of a special forces unit during World War II, Dr. Perdue returned to Emory University, completing medical school as well as his surgical training. He was Chief of Vascular Surgery from 1960-1984 and founded the Emory Residency in Vascular Surgery in 1969 with Dr. Robert Smith. He wrote a large number of scholarly clinical reports and initiated the transplant surgery program at Emory, performing the first kidney transplant in Georgia in 1966. He was a past president of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery-North American Chapter — the forerunner of what is now known as the American Association for Vascular Surgery — and a founding member and past president of the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Robert B. Smith, III, was the Chief of the Emory Vascular Service from 1984-1998. Dr. Smith ranked first in his class at the Emory University School of Medicine and received surgical training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He was influenced by Dr. Arthur Voorhees, who fabricated the first synthetic vascular prosthesis in 1952 from Vinyon N (nylon-6,6) and subsequently performed the first successful repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm with a synthetic graft as reported in 1954. Dr. Smith served as president of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery-North American Chapter, the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery, the Georgia Surgical Society, and the Atlanta Vascular Society. He was Associate Chairman of the Department of Surgery from 1991-2006, Medical Director of Emory University Hospital from 1995-2006, and currently holds the Skandalakis Emeritus Chair in Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Alan B. Lumsden was the Chief of the Vascular Surgery Service from 1997-2001 and was responsible for the expansion of the Non-Invasive Vascular Laboratory, the Venous Clinic, and the Endovascular Service. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Dr. Lumsden completed his general surgical and vascular surgery training at Emory. He currently serves as Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine.

return to top

 Current Faculty

Dr. Elliot Chaikof, the current division director, received his MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, his general surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT. In 1992, he completed the Emory Residency in Vascular Surgery and joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery. Dr. Chaikof established Emory's first program directed at the endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. His current research interests lie at the interface of medicine and engineering with research programs focused in reparative medicine, organ fabrication, and in the design of engineered living systems. In fiscal year 2004-05, the National Institutes of Health reported that Dr. Chaikof was awarded five RO1 grants.

The current faculty also includes:

• Dr. Thomas F. Dodson, who as a medical student at the University of Alabama–Birmingham was influenced by Dr. John W. Kirklin. He received his surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and has served on the surgical faculties of the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Dodson is the Vice-Chairman of Education for the Department of Surgery and Director of the Residency in General Surgery.
  
  
• Dr. Karthikeshwar “Kasi” Kasirajan graduated from Madras Medical College, India. He received general surgery training at Grant Medical College (Bombay, India), the Lincoln Medical System (New York, NY) and the Western Reserve Care System and completed his vascular surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. His clinical interests are in the development and application of minimally invasive approaches to carotid angioplasty and stenting, thoracic stent grafts, and super-selective embolization techniques.
  
  
• Dr. Ross Milner received his MD and completed both his general surgery residency and a clinical fellowship in vascular and endovascular surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed a research fellowship at The Children's Institute for Surgical Science of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Milner has received numerous resident teaching awards at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and at Emory.
  
  
• Dr. Atef Salam, Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and Professor of Surgery at Emory, was an associate of Dr. Dean Warren's at the University of Miami and was recruited by him when Dr. Warren assumed the chairmanship of the Department of Surgery at Emory in 1971. Dr. Salam has made many significant contributions to vascular surgery and the treatment of portal hypertension, including being the co-developer of the distal splenorenal shunt.
  
  
• Joining the faculty in 2006, Dr. Ravi K. Veeraswamy did his general surgery residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and his vascular surgery fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. His clinical interests are carotid stent, carotid endarterectomy, aortic aneurysms, thoracic outlet syndrome, and peripheral vascular disease.

return to top