Rao R. Ivatury MD, MS, FACS, FCCM

Dr. Rao R. Ivatury is the immediate past Chair of the Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Emergency General Surgery and is now a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. His love for Trauma and Critical Care stems from the two decades he had spent in the South Bronx (“Fort Apache: The Bronx”) during one of its most violent times. This experience was the foundation for many of the concepts he promulgated in these massively injured patients e.g. “Damage-control” surgery, the need for open abdomen management, the relevance of intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome, tissue specific end-points of resuscitation. He has co-edited the only textbook on penetrating trauma and has nearly 300 publications, 100 abstracts, 35 chapters, and four textbooks to his credit.

Dr. Ivatury has given more than 500 invited presentations nationally and internationally. He was a Vice-President of the American Association of Surgery of Trauma, Past President, and current Executive Director of the Panamerican Trauma Society (PTS) and the World Society of Abdominal Compartment Syndrome. Dr. Ivatury is also on the editorial board of multiple leading medical journals in his specialty and is the editor-in-chief of Panamerican Journal of Trauma, Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery. He received many awards and honors (and the nickname of “Jedi master Yoda”) for his mentoring of young students and residents in and out of the operating room. Virginia Commonwealth University honored his service by naming their annual Trauma Symposium after him.