Associate Professor, Surgery
Director, Minimally-Invasive Surgery
Contact Information and Appointments
410-550-0409 phone mschwei7@jhmi.edu
410-550-1822 fax
Curriculum Vitae (CV), Publications (PubMed)
Specialties/Interests
- Clinical - minimally-invasive laparoscopic bariatric, hernia, colon and small intestinal, gall bladder, spleen, stomach, pancreas and endoscopic surgery, morbid obesity, heartburn, hernia, stomach, colon and small intestinal, gall bladder, spleen and pancreatic diseases
- Research - minimally-invasive surgery, transoral endoscopic surgery (no scar surgery), laparoscopic surgery, bariatric surgery, prevention of deep venous thrombosis, gastric pacemaker, surgical outcomes after laparoscopic surgery
Johns Hopkins Center for Bariatric Surgery
Biography
Michael A. Schweitzer, M.D., FACS, developed the laparoscopic bariatric surgery programs at the Medical College of Virginia (one of the first ten laparoscopic gastric bypass programs in the country), Georgetown University, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and The Johns Hopkins University, where he currently is a full-time faculty member. Schweitzer was the first surgeon in the mid-Atlantic area to perform laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and the first in Maryland to perform laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery and laparoscopic duodenal switch with biliopancreatic diversion. He's performed well over 1000 laparoscopic bariatric operations to date.
Currently chair of the membership committee for the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, Schweitzer also serves as a site inspector for the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Center of Excellence Program. He serves on three editorial boards: the Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (journal of the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons) and Bariatric Times.
Schweitzer was the first to ever publish a technique for endoscopic stoma reduction using transoral endoscopic suturing. A great deal of attention is focused on the future of transoral surgery to avoid abdominal incisions for routine surgery, or "no-scar surgery," and Schweitzer has been the first to apply this technology to bariatric patients.
A writer of numerous papers, chapters and review articles on bariatric surgery, several of Schweitzer's laparoscopic bariatric surgical techniques have been featured in the American College of Surgeons Cine Video Series. He's considered an international expert on venous thromboembolic complications after bariatric surgery and has one of the lowest complication rates documented in world surgical literature.
Schweitzer currently has an extremely active laparoscopic bariatric practice that includes laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic duodenal switch with biliopancreatic diversion and revision of previous surgery.
