Soft Tissue Surgery

About Soft Tissue Surgery at Penn Vet

The Soft Tissue Surgery service at Penn Vet's Ryan Hospital specializes in treating dogs and cats that require surgery to treat conditions involving the cardiothoracic, gastrointestinal, respiratory and urogenital systems as well as disorders involving the ear, nose and throat.

• Both congenital and acquired conditions are routinely treated and oncological procedures routinely performed.
• Because of the high emergency caseload, our surgeons have a lot of experience with traumatic injuries and reconstructive surgery.
• The Service is currently staffed by six board certified surgeons, eight residents and a class of rotating interns.
• There are two Soft Tissue Surgery services that perform surgery Monday through Friday during the week. Each service alternates surgery days during the week and the service is on call every night of the week and on Saturday and Sunday for emergency cases.
• On appointment days, necessary diagnostic investigations are performed and the majority of cases are then scheduled for surgery the following day.
• Some more complex cases require extensive diagnostic procedures under anesthesia. Such procedures include CT, angiography, and biopsy, and are necessary to determine the nature and extent of disease and the feasibility of surgical therapy.
• The Soft Tissue Surgery service also receives cases transferred from the Medicine, Oncology, Intensive Care, and Emergency services. Cases transferred from these services generally receive surgery on a "medical priority" basis, especially on busy surgery days.

The surgery group has one of the largest pools of soft tissue surgery specialists at any veterinary hospital, academic or otherwise.

The blend of youth and experience in the surgery faculty show the students, interns, and residents in clinical rotations enthusiasm and perspective, enterprise and wisdom. The faculty members retain a vital interest in cases and teaching with them, yet are seasoned enough to offer the students on the surgery a depth of knowledge and insight that comes with experience. These same qualities can be found in the lectures given by the surgery faculty, and are reflected in the numerous teaching awards given to the Surgery faculty over the past decade.

Faculty/Clinicians
	Name	Title	Area(s) of Specialty
	Lillian Aronson, VMD, DACVS	Professor, Surgery Director, Renal Transplantation Service	Renal transplantation Urinary tract surgery/Endourology Microvascular surgery Portosystemic shunts
	David Holt, BVSc, DACVS	Professor of Surgery	Portosystemic shunts Respiratory surgery Surgical oncology
	Kimberly Agnello, DVM, MS, DACVS	Assistant Professor of Surgery	Orthopedic Surgery Soft Tissue Surgery Minimally Invasive Surgery
	Jeffrey Runge, DVM, DACVS	Assistant Professor, Surgery	Minimally Invasive Surgery
	Susan Volk, VMD, PhD, DACVS	Assistant Professor, Surgery	Soft Tissue Surgery Wound Healing Regenerative Medicine Minimally Invasive Surgery