AREA OF CONCENTRATION: SURGERY
  1. Functional Assessment and Perioperative Physiotherapy

    Dysfunctions of organs and systems and their functional reserve are significant factors for perioperative evolution. Identifying these dysfunctions and reserve is essential for risk assessment of perioperative morbidity and mortality, and as part of preoperative preparation, since many dysfunctions may receive therapeutic approach to improve the organic functional reserve, such as respiratory physiotherapy, cardiovascular and motor rehabilitation, among others. In this line of research, we carry out clinical studies and experimental protocols. 

  2. Nutrition and Metabolism in Surgery

    Eating disorders and their metabolic consequences, especially obesity, are a medical-social problem and impose considerable risk in the perioperative period. The treatment of morbid obesity through surgical procedures has obtained satisfactory outcomes concerning weight loss, and further studies are necessary to understand the eating disorder and the consequences of treatment. Moreover, surgeries related to morbid obesity can cause morphofunctional and metabolic changes, as well as other surgeries and therapeutic interventions, such as those used in the treatment of neoplasms, can result in nutritional and metabolic changes.

  3. Study of the Organic Response to Trauma

    It is known that the response to trauma to tissues, organs, and systems is not restricted only to the primary site of trauma, whether it is therapeutic or not, but it is systemic to varying degrees and characterized by endocrine, metabolic, and immune responses. In this line of research, trauma is understood as the effect of physical agents, including surgical trauma and those caused by chemical and biological agents, among others. Thus, this line of research aims to understand the local and systemic response triggered by damage resulting from various traumas, including those caused by therapeutic interventions. In addition to clinical studies, this line will also carry out experimental studies using morphological, morphometric, histochemical, and immunohistochemistry techniques to understand the response of various tissues as different forms of trauma. 

  4. Biology of Organ and Tissue Transplants

    Organ transplant has been practicing by several specialties that make up the Department of Surgery and Anatomy of FMRP-USP. Studying the physiology, morphology, pathophysiology, and evolution of patients who have received transplanted organs and tissues is essential to understand and use this type of therapy. In addition to clinical studies, this line of research also conducts experimental studies. 

  5. Study of Difficult-to-Control Epilepsy

    The study of epilepsies refractory to clinical treatment and surgical options, when the generating region of abnormal electrical activity can be located, is the objective of this line of research that employs both clinical research and animal experimentation projects. 

  6.  Translational Surgical Oncology

    The translational research promotes the multidirectional integration among basic research, patient care-oriented research, and population-based research whose aim is to improve the population health, as proposed by Rubio et al. (Acad Med. 2010 March; 85 (3): 470-475).

    The molecular processes are the basis to develop pathological processes in which several molecular mechanisms are key regulators in diseases, such as microRNAs.  Oncology is one of the medical specialties that has benefited from studies involving molecular biology, a field that has undergone rapid progress, with promising advances for the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of cancer patients. We also study the energy processes that are fundamental for the development and maintenance of the tumor environment. We analyze the genome and mitochondrial function, focusing on the energetic changes in the different neoplasms. A series of technologies have expanded the knowledge of how molecular biology can help in the management of neoplasms through clinical studies using tissue samples obtained in invasive medical procedures or from experimental models. This line of research aims to study the epidemiology and clinical behavior of tumors for different treatments and molecular markers.

AREA OF CONCENTRATION: MORPHOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE

1. Ischemia and Reperfusion

This line of research includes clinical and experimental projects that study pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of ischemia and reperfusion syndromes in various clinical-surgical situations, such as peripheral, coronary, and cerebral arterial obstructions and global cardiac ischemia during cardiac surgeries. This line of research is also interested in the consequences of global ischemia and organ reperfusion in transplant situations.

2. Tissue Regeneration and Reconstruction.

This line studies the therapies for the structural and functional regeneration of organs and tissues such as those using microsurgeries, stem cells, cell growth factors, gene therapies, biomaterials, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, among others, through experimental and clinical studies.

3. Vascular Function

The blood vessels, especially the endothelium and its vasoactive factors, have a crucial role in vascular homeostasis and various local and systemic pathological processes, in which surgeons have a significant role. Thus, knowledge of vascular function is important in pathological and therapeutic processes in which blood vessels are the primary seat of pathology, such as aneurysms, atherosclerosis, and vascular inflammatory diseases, and also in pathological processes involving other organs and systems in which the vasculature has a primary role in the pathophysiology, such as sepsis, trauma response, and rejection of transplants. This line also studies the various therapeutic interventions used to treat vascular pathologies. 

4. Morphofunctional Studies in Surgery

This line of research aims to study the influence of morphological alterations, especially those that result in organic dysfunctions, whether acquired or congenital changes, and the relationship of anatomical structures with the operative technique. Therefore, this line of research is concerned with studies involving:

– The morphofunctional alterations associated with congenital malformations and the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of these malformations through clinical and experimental studies.

– The knowledge of the morphofunctional particularities of acquired diseases aiming to understand the pathophysiology, not only to adapt the existing operative approaches but also to suggest new surgical approaches and evaluate the result of the proposed corrections through clinical and experimental studies

– Better understanding the “surgical anatomy” to propose new surgical techniques and routes of surgical access.