The Section of Surgery encompasses faculty and staff dedicated to Emergency & Critical Care, Large Animal Surgery, and Sports Medicine.
Emergency & Critical Care
Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center offers one of the nation’s few Emergency & Critical Care programs specifically dedicated to large animals. We have a team of dual board certified specialists trained in emergency/critical care, surgery and medicine that is available every hour of every day of the year and a nursing staff second to none.
Large Animal Surgery
Our surgeons are internationally recognized experts providing a complete array of sophisticated procedures including modern minimally invasive techniques such as arthroscopy, endoscopy, laparoscopy, laser and cryo-surgery.
New Bolton Center’s surgical suite in the C. Mahlon Kline Orthopedic & Rehabilitation Center has state-of-the-art equipment for complex fracture repair, special air-handling capabilities to minimize surgical site contamination and a unique pool/raft recovery system. We have intraoperative computed tomography (CT scans) and fluoroscopy that allow the most accurate repair of even the most difficult fractures.
Sports Medicine
New Bolton Center is one of the world leaders in equine sports medicine. Our multidisciplinary team of board-certified internists, surgeons and sports medicine and rehabilitation specialists, in partnership with an internationally renowned farrier and specialized sports medicine and imaging technicians, evaluate and treat the equine athlete.
Our Equine Performance Clinic specializes in:
- Clinical evaluation of lameness
- Rehabilitation of horses following an injury
- Purchase examinations
- Poor performance examinations
We evaluate equine performance in the newly constructed Equine Performance Evaluation Facility, a state-of-the-art indoor facility. For comprehensive evaluation while a horse is exercising, we use both the Jeffords high-speed treadmill and over-ground dynamic endoscopy (miniaturized cameras/recorders attached to an endoscope that can evaluate a horse as it is being ridden).
Both our Sports Medicine clinicians and surgeons benefit from state of the art imaging modalities (digital radiography, nuclear scintigraphy (bone scans), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), exceptional quality ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT). We have introduced robotic CT done in standing horses. In addition to the exceptional and tireless clinical work our faculty perform on a daily basis, they conduct groundbreaking research in their individual fields.
Faculty & Staff
Emergency & Critical Care
- Maia Aitken, DVM, DACVS, DACVECC, Assistant Professor, Clinical Emergency Medicine and Critical Care
- Barbara Dallap Schaer, VMD, DACVECC, DACVS (E&CC), Professor of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, Hospital Medical Director, New Bolton Center
- Janet Johnston, DVM, DACVIM, DACVS (E&CC), Staff Veterinarian, Emergency Medicine and Critical Care
- Tate Buxton Morris, DVM, DACVS, Lecturer in Large Animal Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care
- Louise Southwood, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVS, DACVECC, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care
Large Animal Surgery
- Eric Parente, DVM, DACVS, Professor of Surgery, Service Chief of Large Animal Surgery
- Marie Eve Fecteau, DVM, DACVIM, Associate Professor of Surgery, Section Chief of Large Animal Surgery
- José M. García-López, VMD, DACVS, DACVSMR, Associate Professor of Large Animal Surgery
- David G. Levine, DVM, DACVS, DACSMR, Associate Professor of Clinical Large Animal Surgery
- Tate Buxton Morris, DVM, DACVS, Lecturer in Large Animal Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care
- James Orsini, DVM, DACVS, Associate Professor of Surgery
- Kyla Ortved, DVM, PhD, DACVS, DACSMR, Assistant Professor of Large Animal Surgery, Jacques Jenny Endowed Term Chair in Orthopedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
Sports Medicine
- Elizabeth J. Davidson, DVM, DACVS, DACVSMR, Associate Professor of Equine Sports Medicine
- David G. Levine, DVM, DACVS, DACSMR, Associate Professor of Clinical Large Animal Surgery
- Kyla Ortved, DVM, PhD, DACVS, DACSMR, Assistant Professor of Large Animal Surgery, Jacques Jenny Endowed Term Chair in Orthopedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
- Kara Brown, VMD, Lecturer, Equine Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation
Research Investigators
- Thomas Schaer, VMD, Sr. Research Investigator (PSC-CORL)
- Dr. Feikun Yang, Research Associate (Surgery)
Surgery Residents
- Alycia Crandall, DVM
- Virginia Melly, MVB
- Jairo Perez, DVM
- Caitlin Smith,DVM
- Catherine Thurston, VMD
- Katrijn Whisenant, DVM
Musculoskeletal Research Fellow
CORL Research Fellows
Surgery Interns
- Dr. Alexa Bish-Jones
- Dr. Sarah Ciamillo
- Dr. Rachel Hilliard
- Dr. Kaitlyn Jonk
- Dr. Stephanie Ortiz Gutierrez
- Dr. Meredith Rudnick