Surgery

Dr. Annabel Barber, a professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, is a board-certified surgeon who performs surgeries for patients with breast, colorectal, thyroid and head and neck cancers. She also sees patients with the following gastrointestinal disorders: acid reflux, heartburn, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Jocelyn Burke, MD, an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, specializes in robotic foregut surgery, with particular interest in hiatal hernia repair, anti-reflux surgery and surgery for gastrointestinal motility disorders, including achalasia and gastroparesis.

Dr. Chang, an assistant professor of pediatric surgery at Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, is a board-certified general and pediatric surgeon.

Her areas of special interest include surgical disease of the newborn gastrointestinal tract, anorectal malformations, pediatric surgical oncology, minimally invasive surgery, and surgery for inflammatory bowel disease.

Casey Giles is one of the advanced practice providers in the UNLV Health Plastic Surgery Clinic. She is a Las Vegas native and alumni of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She attended the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio for physician assistant training. Casey graduated top of her class and was inducted into the Pi Alpha and Alpha Eta honor societies.

Allison G. McNickle, MD, has a trauma surgery and research background, with a special interest in trauma resuscitation and the management of extremity injuries. In addition to her clinical practice, she actively trains others to care for trauma patients through advanced trauma life support and pre-hospital lectures.

Dr. Pistorio is originally from Maryland. She worked in biomedical research for ten years prior to medical school.  She completed her undergraduate degree at Thomas Edison State College in animal science and her master’s degree in biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Syed F. Saquib, an assistant professor of trauma and critical care at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, works at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, primarily in trauma, burns and critical care.

Heavily involved in UMC’s Lions Burns Care Center, he works closely with fellows, residents, and students in providing the best patient care possible.

Dr. Charles St. Hill, an assistant professor with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, has pursued research in cancer surgery/clinical trials program development.

A graduate of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, he offers clinical trials for patients who fit the criteria for certain studies. “We’ve done several sponsored clinical trials that have helped patients who don’t have the resources, which help to advance the research while offering more options for patients.”

Dr. Brian C. Ward, an assistant professor of surgery at the UNLV School of Medicine, is a general surgeon who treats patients with a wide variety of conditions, including hernias and diseases of the breast, stomach, colon, rectal, small bowel and gallbladder.

He also handles cases involving skin and soft tissue masses and disease.

Earning his MD from Indiana University, Dr. Ward completed his residency at UNLV in general surgery. He also holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Purdue University.

Air Force Lt. Col. Jeremy Kilburn, a doctor specializing in pulmonary and critical care medicine, is an associate professor of medicine at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV as well as the school’s director of the Office of Military Medicine. Here, he provides insight into a unique military-civilian partnership that he says is the most complex in the United States.  

Dr. Joseph Carroll says the opportunity to be part of the medical
school’s team at the UMC Trauma Center was too good to pass up.

It was when he was in the seventh grade that Dr. Joseph Carroll, now an assistant professor in the UNLV School of Medicine’s department of surgery, first thought about becoming a physician.

The story that ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last May was compelling. Mary Kay Duda’s life was saved by UNLV Medicine’s Dr. Charles St. Hill.

St. Hill, one of only three fellowship-trained surgical oncologists in Nevada, performed a complex 10-hour surgery known as a Whipple procedure to remove a large tumor that enveloped her pancreas.

“I’ve been given the gift of life,” a grateful Duda would later tell St. Hill and reporter Jessie Bekker.

Inspirational Goals

From her extended family what Dr. Jennifer Baynosa often heard as a child was that one day she would find a nice man, fall in love, get married, and have a family.

Taking care of her children and her husband, preparing their meals and washing their clothes, was the future that would be hers.

For children with rare conditions, UNLV Medicine surgeon restores the ability to show happiness. It’s a procedure that leaves both the patient and the surgeon with smiles on their faces. Surgery to correct the effects of Moebius syndrome – a rare congenital condition that can paralyze a person’s entire face and affect muscles that control back and forth eye movement – can make it impossible for a person to show that sign of happiness that most people take for granted.

UNLV Medicine Dr. Ovunc Bardakcioglu, successfully performed a breakthrough surgical procedure using a new robotic device that required no incision through the skin, significantly shortened recovery time, and lessened the chances of infection.