Mark L. Wulkan MD

Dr. Wulkan was recruited in 1998 to expand the application and scope of minimally invasive surgery in the Division of Pediatric Surgery and to direct pediatric laparoscopy at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston (CHOA). He had gained extensive minimally invasive surgery experience during his general surgery residency at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, after which he trained with Dr. Keith Georgeson—one of the pioneers of pediatric minimally invasive surgery—during his pediatric surgery residency at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. After initiating the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center at CHOA in 2003, Dr. Wulkan oversaw its growth into one of the most high-volume pediatric minimally invasive programs in the country. He performed CHOA's first lap-band procedure to treat adolescent obesity in 2007, was one of the first surgeons in Georgia to perform single-site incision surgery on pediatric patients for routine surgeries in 2009, and performed the first laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for adolescent obesity to be done in the Southeast in 2010