If you are a fan of Animal Planet, you might have come across a 2001 documentary about the team of veterinarians that worked on Rose the Koi on a table specially designed to keep the fish alive out of water. It's quite astonishing should you ever see it.
One member of that team was Dr. Chick Weisse, who was at the time a resident in surgery, with a keen interest in surgery on fish.
Dr. Weisse is now a board certified veterinary surgeon and has extensive experience in endovascular and interventional procedures. He is a specialist in Interventional Radiology, which uses imaging to deliver catheters, stents, and the like into tubular structures such as blood vessels, the urinary system, and the respiratory system.
These techniques been used in humans before but Chick is developing these methods for pets. The benefits include decreased morbidity/mortality rates, minimal anesthesia time, reduced hospital stay, and lower costs - sounds pretty good, don't you think?
You can learn more about this fascinating developing technique on UPenns' webpage on the Jack Miller-Ebrahimi Program for Interventional Radiology.
On a lighter note, I came across Chick's bio online and loved the answer to what pets he has:
One cat that demands the attention normally divided among 4-6 animals
It seems that even pioneering veterinary surgeons are slaves to their cats :)
