|  |
| Robert M. Campbell Jr., M.D., was honored for his role in inventing the Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Rib. | |
 Printer Friendly Format
| |
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a
resolution July 28 honoring a former UT Health Science Center San Antonio faculty member for his role in inventing a lifesaving device for children with spinal deformities.
Robert M. Campbell Jr., M.D., was a professor of pediatric orthopaedic surgery at the UT Health Science Center during much of the period that he and his colleague, Melvin D. Smith, M.D., now deceased, developed the Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Rib. They initially began the project at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida sponsored the legislation with 114 cosponsors. (Read Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s
floor testimony)
Titanium rib developed to provide skeletal structure The two physicians invented the device in 1987 to help a 6-month-old boy with severe scoliosis and seven missing ribs who would have otherwise faced certain death. The abnormalities and missing ribs provided no skeletal structure for the child’s lungs to grow and develop. Without the device, this child — and thousands of others who now benefit from the titanium rib — would have died of suffocation. The artificial rib can be expanded during outpatient surgeries as the children grow, providing structure and support for internal organs.
Device received FDA approval in 2004The device went through a 14-year national clinical trial before being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004. The titanium rib has been introduced in more than 30 countries and is considered the gold standard for treating fragile pediatric patients with lung-restricting deformities.
| |
| This is a model of the Titanium Rib, which can be expanded during outpatient surgeries as children grow, providing structure and support for internal organs. | |
| |
During the process, Drs. Campbell and Smith characterized a previously unrecognized condition, developed six new surgical procedures and exposed a gap in the nation’s pediatric device development system that revolutionized the way the FDA goes about approving pediatric medical devices.
Legacy carried on by Drs. Simmons and KoeckAlthough Dr. Campbell is now director of the Thoracic Insufficiency Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pa., the Titanium Rib Project lives on at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, where Assistant Professor James Simmons III, D.O., directs the program and performs the lifesaving surgery along with William Koeck, M.D., also a Health Science Center assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedics.
