General Surgery
General Surgery
The UNLV Health General Surgery Clinic provides excellent patient-centered surgical care in an environment that is focused on the unique surgical needs of every patient. We strive to provide every doctor to patient interaction with empathy, compassion, humility, integrity, and respect.
General Surgery
Click on the map for directions to UNLV General Surgery clinic office from Google Maps
- Call Us: 702-671-5150
- Parking: Free parking is available in our parking lot. No street parking is available at this location.
- Click here to see the homepage for this office
Annabel E. Barber, MD, FACS
General Surgery, Oncology, and Gastrointestinal Disorders
Dr. Annabel Barber, a professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, is a board-certified surgeon who performs surgeries for patients with breast, colorectal, thyroid and head and neck cancers. She also sees patients with the following gastrointestinal disorders: acid reflux, heartburn, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Ovunc Bardakcioglu, MD
Colon and Rectal Surgery
Dr. Ovunc Bardakcioglu, an associate professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, serves as chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery.
Dr. Bardakcioglu was educated in Germany and chose to specialize in general surgery during his residency at Beth Israel Medical Center.
He completed a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
Jennifer Baynosa, MD
General Surgery, Breast Oncology
Dr. Jennifer Baynosa is an associate professor of breast oncology surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV.
A graduate of the USC Keck School of Medicine, she completed her general surgery residence at the University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine. After residency, she completed a breast surgery fellowship at Stanford University.
Currently the program director for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV General Surgery Residency, her main research interest is breast cancer and how it metastasizes.
Jocelyn Burke, MD
General Surgery
Jocelyn Burke, MD, an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, specializes in robotic foregut surgery, with particular interest in hiatal hernia repair, anti-reflux surgery and surgery for gastrointestinal motility disorders, including achalasia and gastroparesis.
Yvonne Marie Carter, MD
Thoracic Surgery
Yvonne Marie Carter, MD, a thoracic surgeon who earned her medical degree at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City, is an associate professor and thoracic surgery section chief in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery.
Jared Griffard, MD
General & Trauma Surgery
Jared Griffard, MD, an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.
He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center – Knoxville, and completed a fellowship in acute care surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, becoming board-certified in both general surgery and surgical critical care.
Lance Horner, MD
Colon and Rectal Surgery
Lance Horner, MD, grew up in Reno, Nevada. He attended the University of Nevada, Reno for undergraduate studies graduating Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. Dr. Horner went on to pursue his medical doctorate at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine where he was elected to the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. Upon graduation from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Dr.
Daniel M. Kirgan, MD
General Surgery, Surgical Oncology
Dr. Daniel Kirgan, a professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, is currently vice chair of the department, and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology.
A graduate of the George Washington University School of Medicine, he completed his general surgical residency at the University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine. Following completion of his residency, Dr. Kirgan did a two-year surgical oncology fellowship at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in California.
Stephanie Lynne Martinez, MD
General & Trauma Surgery
Stephanie Martinez, MD, an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, received her medical doctorate and completed her general surgery residency at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Originally from Buffalo, NY, Dr. Martinez did her fellowship training in burn surgery, surgical critical care, and trauma surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her areas of interest include acute management of coagulopathy and resuscitation in burn-trauma patients, as well as burn reconstruction.
Allison G. McNickle, MD
General Surgery, Trauma and Surgical Critical Care
Allison McNickle, MD, FACS, is an assistant professor at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery and the section chief of trauma surgery.
Also the program director of the medical school’s acute care surgery fellowship, vice chief of trauma and chair of the Critical Care Committee at University Medical Center, Dr. McNickle is board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care.
Charles St Hill, MD, MSc, FACS
Surgical Oncology, Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, General Surgery
Dr. Charles St. Hill, an assistant professor with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery, has pursued research in cancer surgery/clinical trials program development.
A graduate of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, he offers clinical trials for patients who fit the criteria for certain studies. “We’ve done several sponsored clinical trials that have helped patients who don’t have the resources, which help to advance the research while offering more options for patients.”
Lorena Suarez-Kelly, MD
General Surgery, Oncology
Lorena Patricia Suarez-Kelly, MD, who specializes in the management of complex cancer patients, is an assistant professor in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Surgery.
Her research focuses on the use of immune modulators to treat cancer and enhance the actions of antitumor therapies
Joseph Thornton, MD
General Surgery, Colon and Rectal Surgery
Dr. Joseph Thornton, an associate professor with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, has been a practicing colon and rectal surgeon in Las Vegas for more than 25 years.
A graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville who later did a colon rectal surgery fellowship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Dr. Thornton is board certified in colon and rectal surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.
Brian Ward, MD PhD
Dr. Brian C. Ward, an assistant professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, is a general surgeon who treats patients with a wide variety of conditions, including hernias and diseases of the breast, stomach, colon, rectal, small bowel and gallbladder.
He also handles cases involving skin and soft tissue masses and disease.
Earning his MD from Indiana University, Dr. Ward completed his residency at UNLV in general surgery. He also holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Purdue University.
Leading the Largest Military-Civilian Partnership in the Country
Air Force Lt. Col. Jeremy Kilburn, a doctor specializing in pulmonary and critical care medicine, is an associate professor of medicine at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV as well as the school’s director of the Office of Military Medicine. Here, he provides insight into a unique military-civilian partnership that he says is the most complex in the United States.
Dr. John Fildes’ Lifelong Commitment to Serving Southern Nevada Continues After Retirement
Even if Ben Franklin, one of the nation’s Founding Fathers who seemed capable of doing almost everything to enhance the common good – from helping draft the Declaration of Independence to inventing the flexible catheter – could have broken the time barrier to share his wisdom with Americans of every generation, there would have been no need for him to share one of his most important observations with John Fildes: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Former UNLV Medicine Fellow Joins Faculty
Dr. Joseph Carroll says the opportunity to be part of the
medical
school’s team at the UMC Trauma Center was too good to pass up.
It was when he was in the seventh grade that Dr. Joseph Carroll, now an assistant professor in the UNLV School of Medicine’s department of surgery, first thought about becoming a physician.
Internationally Known Trauma Surgeon Begins Work as School of Medicine Dean
Dr. John Fildes continues the vision for establishing UNLV’s academic medical center.
In August, just days after being named interim dean of the UNLV School of Medicine, Dr. John Fildes was before a gathering of the world’s best surgeons, delivering a keynote address on handling mass casualty situations. It’s a topic with which he is all too familiar.
Surgeon Encourages Minority Students to Pursue Medical Careers
The story that ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last May was compelling. Mary Kay Duda’s life was saved by UNLV Medicine’s Dr. Charles St. Hill.
St. Hill, one of only three fellowship-trained surgical oncologists in Nevada, performed a complex 10-hour surgery known as a Whipple procedure to remove a large tumor that enveloped her pancreas.
“I’ve been given the gift of life,” a grateful Duda would later tell St. Hill and reporter Jessie Bekker.
Inspirational Goals
Dr. Deborah Kuhls Reflects on Mass Shooting
They sought a carefree weekend out on the town.
Some were from Vegas, many drove in from Southern California, and others journeyed on a plane to escape the worries of their everyday lives.
That’s what set the evening apart from so many others that Dr. Deborah Kuhls has spent in UMC’s trauma center.
Dr. Joseph Thornton on Overcoming Obstacles
Dr. Joseph Thornton’s road to becoming a physician makes you realize yet again that where there’s a will, there’s a way.
He grew up in a single parent household on the south side of Chicago, the son of an African American bartender who wanted the best for her son. His two aunts, both maids, also lived in the home.
“Combining incomes made the housing affordable,” says the 72-year-old colorectal surgeon who now is an associate professor in the UNLV School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. “For good times they loved to go to the racetrack and watch the horses run.”
Dr. Jennifer Baynosa, Surgical Oncologist
From her extended family what Dr. Jennifer Baynosa often heard as a child was that one day she would find a nice man, fall in love, get married, and have a family.
Taking care of her children and her husband, preparing their meals and washing their clothes, was the future that would be hers.
Groundbreaking Robotic Surgery
UNLV Medicine Dr. Ovunc Bardakcioglu, successfully performed a breakthrough surgical procedure using a new robotic device that required no incision through the skin, significantly shortened recovery time, and lessened the chances of infection.
UNLV Medicine Surgeon Leads State’s Only Organ Transplant Program
Dr. John Ham, professor of surgery at UNLV School of Medicine, leads UMC’s kidney transplantation program – which has one of the best 3-year survival rates in the nation.
Read the full story here.
UNLV Surgical Oncologist Performs 10-Hour Whipple Procedure
As doctors wheeled 75-year-old Mary Kay Duda into surgery for a pancreatic tumor, she turned to her daughter, Katie, and said, “See you on the flip side.”
Katie Duda, 36, rolled her eyes at the memory, humorous now that her mother is nearing two years cancer-free. At the time, though, the thought of losing her mother was unbearably real.
Mary Kay Duda says she’s one of the lucky unlucky ones. Unlucky in that the tumor growing inside her enveloped the head of her pancreas. Unlucky in that one Las Vegas surgeon declined to operate because the tumor was so large.