Rao R. Ivatury, MD, MS, FACS

Rao R. Ivatury, MD, MS, FACS, is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. His love for Trauma and Critical Care stems from two decades 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 massively injured patients e.g. “Damage-control” surgery, open abdomen management, intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome, tissue specific end-points of resuscitation and laparoscopy for penetrating trauma.
He co-edited multiple textbooks on trauma: the only text book on penetrating trauma, “Abdominal Compartment Syndrome”, “Open Abdomen”, “Interventional Radiology in Trauma”, “ Operative techniques for severe liver injuries” and “Geriatric Trauma” among others. He has 330 publications, 100 abstracts and 40 chapters to his credit. He has given more than 500 invited presentations nationally and internationally. He is on the editorial board of multiple leading medical journals in his specialty. Among his many awards and honors, were the “Arnold M. Salzberg Award in Surgery for superior integrity, leadership, teaching and clinical ability by Chief Residents of Surgery at VCU” (twice); “outstanding teacher” award from medical students (multiple times) and the “Fred Parker award for Pre-hospital education and leadership”. He was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 2001. His students and residents fondly gave him the nickname of “Jedi master Yoda” for his abilities in patient care and teaching.
A member of all leading trauma societies, he was elected Vice-President of American Association of Surgery for Trauma and President of the Panamerican Trauma Society (PTS) and the World Society of Abdominal Compartment Syndrome. He is the immediate past Executive Director of PTS. VCU and PTS named annual excellence awards in his name for ‘superior integrity, teaching and mentorship”. The annual Trauma Symposium of VCU is named after him.
In October 2019, he was inducted into the prestigious Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the American College of Surgeons.
Since his retirement in 2013, he has been busy mentoring young surgeons and pursing his passion for surgical history.