LITTLE ROCK — Emmanouil Giorgakis, M.D., M.Sc., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as a liver, kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon.
Giorgakis also serves as an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. Giorgakis will perform liver, kidney and pancreas transplants, as well as hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. UAMS is the only center in Arkansas that offers adult liver or kidney transplantation.
“We are lucky to hire a surgeon like Dr. Giorgakis,” said Lyle J. Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., director of solid organ transplantation. “He is an internationally trained transplant/hepatobiliary surgeon who came out of what I consider one of the most cutting-edge fellowship programs — the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. Many people are in need of these lifesaving transplants in Arkansas, and we are working hard to make them accessible to more people.”
Giorgakis said there have been big advances in the transplant field. For example, transplants are available for patients with higher body mass indexes, when paired with simultaneous weight-loss procedures. The organ donor pool has expanded, and organ preservation techniques have improved.
“If you haven’t qualified for a transplant, it’s time to ask again,” Giorgakis said. “More people than ever before can successfully undergo these procedures.”
Giorgakis obtained his medical degree from the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He also earned a Master of Science from University College London. He started his general surgery training in Greece. He advanced his surgical training initially at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York and then in London, where he trained in major trauma/ emergency, metabolic, hepatobiliary and transplantation surgery. Giorgakis received fellowship training in liver transplantation at King’s College Hospital in London and completed a multi-organ abdominal transplantation surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.