Dr Rainer Gruessner and his team performed the world’s first entirely robotic surgeries for patients with chronic pancreatitis starting in 2012. This procedure entails the removal of the diseased pancreas, reconstruction of the gastro-intestinal tract, and islet autotransplant to prevent the patient from becoming a (brittle) diabetic. This procedure is unique as it allows to combine minimally invasive/robotic surgery, general surgery, and transplant surgery in 1 procedure for the wellbeing of patients with chronic pancreatitis, a debilitating disease that causes intractable pain and destruction of the pancreatic gland. At the University of Arizona, Dr Rainer Gruessner and his team have performed 6 such procedures with and over 50 without the robot.
Dr Rainer Gruessner has produced over 300 peer-reviewed publications, over 200 published abstracts, and over 75 book chapters. He is the lead editor of 2 standard textbooks on transplantation and a co-editor on a soon to be published textbook on innovative advances in general surgery. As a result of his many publications, Dr Rainer Gruessner’s h-index (an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist) per Google Scholar is 54 and his RG score (which measures scientific reputation based on how all of one’s research is received by one’s peers) per ResearchGate is 45 - quite respectable for a practicing surgeon who spends many hours of the day in the operating room. According to ResearchGate, Dr Rainer Gruessner belongs to the 2.5% most published scientists.
Visit : http://drrainergruessner.blog.com/2015/02/09/dr-rainer-gruessner-a-history-of-distinction/ for more.