Faculty

Robert M. Campbell, Jr., M.D.
Professor
President's Council Chair for Excellence in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery Pediatric Orthopaedic Service
Email: campbellr@uthscsa.edu

I attended Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University School of Medicine. My hospital training includes a surgical internship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu Hawaii, an orthopaedic surgical residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver, and a pediatric orthopaedic fellowship at the Alfred I. DuPont Institutein Wilmington Delaware. I joined the UTHSCSA Orthopaedics faculty in 1986. The focus of my research efforts are the characterization and treatment of rare thoracic malformations in infants and children. As a pediatric orthopedist, my initial interest was in congenital scoliosis of infancy, but early in my career it became obvious that the associated chest wall defects and rib fusion was a more significant clinical problem with children going on to develop respiratory insufficiency and possibly later ventilator dependency. Since 1987 we have treated 108 patients with severe thoracic malformations with a world-wide referral pattern. Our research team consists of myself (a pediatric orthopedist), a pediatric thoracic surgeon, and a pediatric pulmonologist as well as a pediatric intensivist. Through this team approach, all complex cases are comprehensively evaluated and treatment recommended. We invented the Titanium Rib for the treatment of thoracic insufficiency syndrome resulting from scoliosis. A national clinical trial to test the titanium rib started in the 1990s under the sponsorship of the Synthes Spine Co. of West Chester, Pa. About 210 children underwent surgery at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital and 90 at children’s hospitals in Pittsburgh, Boston, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Seattle and Philadelphia. Recently, the Titanium Rib was approved by the FDA and it is the first truly new spine deformity treatment to gain FDA approval since 1962. To date, the device has saved the lives of over 300 infants and children across the country.

 

Recent Publications:

 

Campbell RM, Hell-Vocke AK. Growth of the thoracic spine in congenital scoliosis after expansion thoracoplasty. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Vol. 85-A, No. 3: 409-420, March 2003.

 

Campbell RM, Smith MD, Mayes TC, Mangos JA, Willey-Courand DB, Kose N, Pinero RF, Alder ME, Duong HL, Surber JL. The characteristics of thoracic insufficiency syndrome associated with fused ribs and congenital scoliosis. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 85-A, No. 3: 339-408, March 2003.

 

Campbell RM, Smith MD, Mayes TC, Mangos JA, Willey-Courand DB, Kose N, Pinero RF, Alder ME, Duong HL, Surber JL. The effect of opening wedge thoracostomy on thoracic insufficiency syndrome associated with fused ribs and congenital scoliosis. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 86-A, No. 8: 1659-1674, August 2004.

 

Campbell RM, Smith MD, Hell-Vocke AK. Expansion thoracoplasty: the surgical technique guide of opening-wedge thoracostomy. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 86-A, Supplemental No. 1: 51-64, August 2004.