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.

Dr. Carmen Flores, an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, practices general, trauma, acute care and burn surgery.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Dr. Flores completed fellowships in both surgical critical care and trauma/acute care surgery through the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV.

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.

Working with cadavers provides medical students with valuable experience.

Inside the Oquendo Center, a large medical event space near McCarran International Airport, eight human cadavers lay on individual operating tables, each one surrounded by an array of surgical equipment.

Dr. John Fildes continues the vision for establishing UNLV’s academic medical center.

In August, just days after being named interim dean of the UNLV School of Medicine, Dr. John Fildes was before a gathering of the world’s best surgeons, delivering a keynote address on handling mass casualty situations. It’s a topic with which he is all too familiar.

Ben Mays held his nearly severed thumb, dangling by a ligament, in his right palm as he rode his 17-year-old quarter horse Bubby out of the South Point Arena and across the parking lot to an ambulance.

He swung the doors open, held out his dangling digit to show the stunned paramedic inside, and handed his horse over to another roper. Then he climbed in and held a bag of ice on his thumb — still shoved inside the white glove he had been wearing — as first responders sped him to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

They sought a carefree weekend out on the town.

Some were from Vegas, many drove in from Southern California, and others journeyed on a plane to escape the worries of their everyday lives.

That’s what set the evening apart from so many others that Dr. Deborah Kuhls has spent in UMC’s trauma center. 

Moebius syndrome — a rare congenital condition that can paralyze the entire face and affect muscles that control back-and-forth eye movement.

To unlock Moebius paralysis — it affects something we take for granted, the ability to smile — is something that Dr. John Menezes, an associate professor of plastic surgery with the UNLV School of Medicine, has been trained to do.