Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is an internationally recognized leader in innovation, research and clinical excellence that has given rise to breakthroughs in cardiovascular care, neuroscience, oncology, transplantation, and more. Our team’s efforts have led to the creation of many research programs and initiatives to develop advanced treatments found nowhere else in the world.

Our strong alliance with Baylor College of Medicine allows us to bring our patients a powerful network of care unlike any other. Our collaboration is focused on increasing access to care through a growing network of leading specialists and revolutionizing healthcare to save lives and improve the health of the communities we serve. 

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is also the first hospital in Texas and the Southwest designated a Magnet® hospital for Nursing Excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, receiving the award six consecutive times.

Costal margin reconstruction represents a significant advancement in the treatment of  people suffering from Slipping Rib Syndrome (SRS), a debilitating condition in which one or more of the lower ribs become hypermobile due to weakened or damaged cartilage. This leads to pain and discomfort as the ribs move out of their normal position and push on nerves. If not properly diagnosed and treated, SRS can potentially lead to long-term disability and chronic pain.

Traditional treatment options for SRS range from non-interventional methods like rest, physical therapy, and pain management with medications or injections. When these conservative treatments fail, SRS patients’ best option is surgery, which includes sutured repair and costal cartilage excision. Both have limitations and potential for recurrence of symptoms.

Now, costal margin reconstruction offers patients a much greater chance of recovery. Dr. R. Taylor Ripley, professor of surgery in the David J. Sugarbaker Division of Thoracic Surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, is one of only a few surgeons in the US currently performing this innovative surgical procedure. The procedure involves removing the problematic cartilage and autotransplanting part of the cartilage between the ribs to prevent further nerve impingement. The cartilage and ribs are then secured with a dissolvable plate, allowing for healing while maintaining enough flexibility for normal breathing. 

Costal margin reconstruction not only offers pain relief but also reduces the need for revision surgeries and dependency on pain medications, enhancing the overall quality of life for patients.

Cardiac and thoracic surgeons at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center are leading the nation in the deployment of advanced technologies and robotics to treat coronary and lung diseases, as well as organ transplantations. Now, Baylor’s new Center for Robotic Cardiothoracic Surgery aims to lead the way in advancing minimally invasive procedures, enhancing patient outcomes, and shaping the future of robotic surgery on a global scale. 

The Center is based upon a specialized nursing unit and core clinical care team at BSLMC and includes a dedicated team of surgical care personnel. 

Baylor is home to one of the nation’s most highly skilled cardiac surgeons using robotic assisted surgical procedures to treat heart valve and coronary artery disease. Kenneth K. Liao, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Circulatory Support, achieved a significant milestone by completing his 600th robotic assisted heart surgery in 2024 and is the the sole cardiac surgeon in the Texas Medical Center utilizing the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center’s Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion Program has recently passed the benchmark of having performed over 100 ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) cases since its inception in 2018. 

EVLP is a machine-based therapy that assesses and preserves donor lungs before transplantation. 

Gabriel Loor, M.D., surgical director of the Lung Transplant Program at BSLMC, led the first “breathing lung transplantation” using EVLP in the Midwest in 2014, and the first in Texas in 2018. Dr. Loor is a pioneer in this space, having played a key role in FDA approval of the Organ Care System (OCS) Lung machine. 

The OCS Lung machine is designed to keep donor lungs functioning and “breathing” in human-like conditions from the time of the donor procurement all the way to the transplant surgery. The device maintains the organ in its own physiologic state with blood, oxygen, nutrients, and a sophisticated monitoring system that continually assesses the organ as it travels from donor to the recipient. 

Typically, lungs transported in a standard ice cooler are implanted within six hours. But the use of the OCS Lung machine at BSLMC allows preservation times ranging from six hours to 18 hours. 

The device also enables surgeons to accept donor offers from anywhere in the continental US and better manage logistics so that complex recipient operations can occur during daylight hours rather than in the middle of the night. 

The Baylor St. Luke’s transplant team is also exploring other technologies for organ preservation such as the Lungguard (Paragonix). The Lungguard chills donor organs to 4°C but prevents the potentially harmful effects of ice. The team has used the device to recover lungs for donation after circulatory death, which allows access to a large potential pool of donor organs. The Lungguard approach allows donor organs to be transported over considerable distances and time, and preliminary experience with this system is encouraging.

Another milestone for robotic-assisted surgeries at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center was set in 2024 by Shawn Groth, M.D., chief of BSLMC’s David J. Sugarbaker, M.D. Division of Thoracic Surgery. In 2024, Dr. Groth became one of fewer than 10 surgeons in the US to perform more than 100 robotic esophagectomies.  

This extraordinary accomplishment is not just a personal triumph for Dr. Groth. It also signifies an evolution in the field of esophageal surgery and underscores the experience and expertise of Baylor surgeons. 

An esophagectomy is a surgical procedure in which a portion of the esophagus is removed and (typically) reconstructed with the stomach. It is performed for cancer and some benign disorders, such as severe scarring of the esophagus or achalasia. 

Traditionally, esophageal surgery was performed through large, “open” incisions in the chest, abdomen and/or neck. Though effective, these surgeries often required a prolonged recovery period, accompanied by significant discomfort and frequent complications. 

Recognizing the need for a more patient-centric approach which offers operations that are safer and more easily tolerated, visionary surgeons at Baylor like Dr. Groth have dedicated themselves to perfecting less invasive surgical techniques. 

A robotic approach allows surgeons to perform complex operations, such as esophagectomy, with a great deal of precision and ensures patients receive the highest standards of oncology care, including a thorough lymph node evaluation, resecting the tumor with negative margins and optimizing long-term survival.

An abundance of data supports the benefits of minimally invasive esophagectomy over traditional open esophagectomies, including less pain, lower complication rates, less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, faster recovery, and a better quality-of-life. 

This milestone highlights the strength of Baylor’s robotic cardiothoracic surgery team and their capabilities in performing a high volume of complex cardiac and thoracic operations through less invasive techniques.

As one of the top 10 lung transplant centers in the U.S., the Lung Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s combines the expertise of Baylor College of Medicine physicians in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, the David J. Sugarbaker Division of Thoracic Surgery and the Division of Abdominal Transplantation. 

Recently, members of the Institute performed a successful rare dual transplant on a 63-year-old male patient. Neither a smoker nor a drinker, Larry Nesler, the patient, needed both lung and liver transplants. 

Despite not knowing the causes, Nesler’s lung capacity had rapidly declined, making simple tasks difficult. His survival depended on acceptance into an organ transplant program, but he faced rejection from the transplant center in his home state due to concerns about surviving major surgery. His age made him a high-risk candidate for a dual transplant—even if the Institute could locate a liver/lung match. And it was during the height of the pandemic.

However, Nesler received approval from the transplant team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and rented an apartment nearby to stay in constant contact with his medical team. After a three-month wait, he received a match for both a lung and a liver and had the surgery that day. Following a more than 10 hour surgery, Nesler had a new lung and liver. 

There is not a lot of experience with this combination, but the surgical team at the Institute drew on their collective experience with surgery in high-risk scenarios to ensure the safest outcomes.

After a three-week hospital stay, Nesler returned home and was on his way to a full recovery. Now, spending quality time with his family and young grandchildren, Nesler attributes being alive and well today to the compassionate and expert medical care he received from the entire healthcare team at the Lung Institute.

Organ transplant patients who travel great distances for lifesaving care at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center benefit from the highest level of critical care in Baylor St. Luke’s Lung Transplant Program, which has gained an international reputation for the treatment of advanced lung disease and transplant care.

Led by Dr. Puneet Garcha, Medical Director of Lung Transplantation at Baylor St. Luke’s and Associate Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Gabriel Loor, Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation at Baylor St. Luke’s and Associate Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, the program serves patients from around the US and other countries who are often denied by other providers because the cost of insurance is prohibitive, the patient has a poor prognosis, or other reasons.

One recent double lung transplant patient is a case in point. A 54-year-old man, a resident of Hawaii, had developed pneumonia, which progressed to respiratory failure that severely damaged both of his lungs. Hospitalized locally, he was intubated and on mechanical ventilation. The patient, who was previously in good health and had no major health issues, also experienced respiratory and kidney failure, infection, gastrointestinal bleeding, and physical deconditioning.

Baylor St. Luke’s accepted the patient after he was rejected by other hospitals. He was airlifted over the summer from Hawaii to Houston, where he spent a month in the care of Baylor’s ICU nursing staff and therapists before being prepped for a bilateral lung transplant.

“We were able to secure a donor lung pretty quickly, and his health improved dramatically soon after the procedure,” said Dr. Loor.

Three months after the double transplant, the patient continued his recuperation in Houston, where he received physical therapy and occupational therapy every week, and re-established living independently. His prognosis is good for a complete recovery, Dr. Loor added. This patient’s experience is just one of many stories that reflect the quality of the critical care at Baylor St. Luke's Lung Transplant Program.

The discovery and application of biomarkers have revolutionized the treatment of patients with lung cancer, heart failure, and myocardial ischemia. Yet it has not yet been applied to the care of patients in whom complications develop after a lung transplant. 

Recently, a team of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Heart Institute conducted one of the largest single-center studies of biomarkers in lung transplant patients experiencing primary graft dysfunction (PGD) to discover what biomarkers might aid in earlier detection and improved patient care and outcomes. 

PGD is the main cause of chronic illness and death for patients who undergo a lung transplant. There is no cure for PGD. While patients can be successfully treated with supportive care, that alone cannot prevent the potential for irreversible harm to the donor allograft or other end organs. 

Early detection of PGD could be improved, however, with the ability to accurately map its molecular signature and specific biomarkers.

The study sought to validate the utility of protein biomarkers for detecting the severity and duration of PGD. The researchers used the most updated PGD grading guidelines, a contemporary cohort of 40 lung transplant recipients, and novel statistical methods to aid in detecting a wide breadth of biomarkers.

Their findings suggest that unique inflammatory protein expression patterns may indicate the severity and duration of PGD. The clinical use and continued examination of these biomarkers may not only help detect PGD early on, but also predict its progression, provide insights for drug development, and establish better treatment benchmarks. 

The study was published in September 2022 in Nature.

Our surgical teams recently launched a successful pulmonary endarterectomy program for the treatment of patients with advanced thromboembolic disease. Our multidisciplinary teams handle a variety of cases involving acute and chronic pulmonary embolisms that require surgery, catheter-based therapies, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Dr. Ajith Nair leads our pulmonary hypertension program and specializes in the care of patients with primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension from a variety of causes ranging from congenital heart disease to sarcoidosis.

The late Dr. David Sugarbaker, a pioneer in advancing the treatment of pleural mesothelioma, founded the Mesothelioma Treatment Center (MTC) and recruited Dr. R. Taylor Ripley, who now serves as the Director. With only a handful of centers treating mesothelioma regularly in the U.S., the MTC has one of the busiest programs; last year alone, the center saw over 100 patients.

With access to leaders in the field of mesothelioma care and treatment, unparalleled resources and collaborations, and rapid access to care, Baylor St. Luke’s offers advanced therapies not available anywhere else in the world.

With a multidisciplinary patient approach, the center is comprised of social workers, nutritionists, chaplains, exercise physiologists, and nurse practitioners, in addition to the expert surgical team. For patients who undergo surgery, offerings include an Extended Pleurectomy and Decortication (ePD), sparing the lung and avoiding a pneumonectomy.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, the clinical home for Baylor College of Medicine, leads in the advancement of multiple areas of thoracic surgery, from mesothelioma and lung cancer surgical techniques to employing new methods in treating advanced COPD.

Our robust training program in thoracic surgery has dedicated physicians for non-cardiac thoracic surgery — one of the only programs in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city. Because we understand how specialized thoracic surgical care should be, the Lung Institute has a dedicated thoracic surgery ICU space, led by a highly knowledgeable team.

Our comprehensive thoracic surgery clinic is a funded project by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas. All of the Institute’s attendings are active in research, education, and clinical care as Baylor College of Medicine staff and members of a Multidisciplinary Tumor Board.

Baylor Medicine is the only center in Texas approved by CMS to perform lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS). We also offer bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR) as a potential alternative to LVRS and a less invasive method to achieve lung volume reduction in patients with emphysema and hyperinflation.

Baylor Medicine has the ability to treat the full spectrum of thoracic issues, including expertise in lung preservation techniques, segmentectomy, and complex lung reconstructions. At the forefront of innovation, the team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center began offering robotic thoracic surgery in 2017 and has since performed over 500 robotic procedures.

Our capabilities include:

• Bronchoscopy
• Cervical mediastinoscopy
• Chest wall resection and reconstruction
• Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC)
• Sleeve lobectomy/lung resection
• Lung-sparing approaches to malignant pleural effusions
• Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS)​
• Pleurectomy and decortication​
• Pneumonectomy​
• Robotic general thoracic surgery​
• Robotic sublobar resection (segmentectomy and wedge resections), including minimally invasive approaches
• Robotic sublobar resection (segmentectomy and wedge resections), including minimally invasive approaches