What do you most enjoy about your work?I’ve
enjoyed clinical care in surgery from the time I started my residency up until
the present. Throughout my career as a resident, as a surgeon in the United
States Navy, as a private practice physician, and now as a recent addition to
the University of Washington’s Orthopaedic Department, I have always found
someone who can teach me a new trick if I can find residents and students who
will benefit from hearing these ideas.
What is your treatment philosophy?
Ideally,
I would like to teach patients about their diagnoses and what treatments in the
past have been rendered. Out of that
understanding, I think patients can help a surgeon come to an appropriate
surgical plan and well-designed postoperative course. I would welcome and encourage patients to
have consultations with people who may have alternate beneficent
suggestions. Normally a spine surgeon
makes a long-term commitment before he performs spinal surgery.
What are your interests outside of medicine?
Interests
outside of medicine most often involve my immediate family and have included medical
sabbaticals to many parts of the world.
My family and I have made a lot of friends and have a very full memory
bank.
What is the focus of your teaching efforts?
Patients
have taught me most of what I know and the focus of my teaching could be based
only on clinical care, surgery, and outcome results.
What do your most recent research efforts focus on?
An
Endowed Chair – I’ve been recently honored to have research in tissue
regeneration established in my name and I hope that I could direct that
research in a significant way.
What is the focus of your clinical efforts?
The
focus of my clinical energies is in the area of spinal deformity whether it is
the result of fracture, tumor, or adolescent deformities of kyphosis and
scoliosis. Many of these conditions remain idiopathic and our effort should
include a very exact data collection in order that we help to define the
primary etiology.
Selected bibliography of
Theodore A. Wagner, MD
1. Vineyard GC, Bradley BE,
Defalco A, Lawson D, Wagner TA, Pastis WK, Nardella FA, Hayes JR: Effect of hydroxyethyl starch on plasma
volume and hematocrit following hemorrhagic shock in dogs: comparison with
dextran, plasma and Ringer’s. Annals of Surgery, 164(5):891-9, Nov 1966.
2. Neufeld J, Wagner TA: Biomechanics of the innominate
osteotomy. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Exhibit. J Bone and Joint Surg, 54A:1582, 1972.
3. Wagner TA, Toomey HE,
Barnard, B: Backcountry orthopedic
diagnosis and care. Emergency Care Quarterly, 4(3), Nov 1988.
4. Carpenter C, Dietz J,
Hanscom D, Leung KY, Wagner TA: Repair of a
pseudarthrosis of the lumbar spine. A functional outcome study. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol.
78A(5):712-20, May 1996.
5. Slimp JC, Stolov WC, Wagner
TA: Spine and scalp recordings as a
function of intensity: A model for changes during spinal cord monitoring. Spine,
21(1):99-103, Jan 1996.
6. Lebwohl NH, Cunningham BW,
Dmitriev A, Shimamoto N, Gooch L, Devlin V, Boachie-Adjei O, Wagner TA:
Biomechanical comparison of lumbosacral fixation techniques in a calf spine
model. Spine, 27(21):2312-20, Nov 2002.
Contact Information:
University of Washington Medical Center: (206) 543-3690
Roosevelt II Bone
and Joint Center: (206)-598-4288