Dr. Santiago Horgan, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery, is an internationally recognized expert in robot-assisted surgery and other minimally invasive surgical techniques. He is a pioneer in the surgical treatment of morbid obesity as well as a specialist in surgery and physiology of the esophagus.
Dr. Horgan is also Director of the Center for Treatment of Obesity at UCSD. Here, he is establishing the first program in San Diego to offer the new, minimally invasive outpatient procedure called the LAP-BAND Adjustable Gastric Banding System. The LAP-BAND system is the only weight loss surgery approved by the United States FDA.
With the LAP-BAND system, the surgeon places an adjustable balloon in the stomach to reduce the stomach capacity and create a feeling of fullness. The LAP-BAND involves no cutting or stapling of the stomach and no intestinal re-routing. Unlike any other procedure available, it is adjustable and reversible. LAP-BAND technology has been used for years in Europe and South America to treat morbid obesity. Dr. Horgan played a major role in introducing LAP-BAND to the United States and in conducting the clinical trials that led to FDA approval of the technique.
Dr. Horgan was one of the first surgeons in the world to perform the LAP-BAND surgery. He is one of the most experienced surgeons in the world in the technique, having performed over 500 LAP-BAND procedures. He has traveled throughout the United States to train other surgeons to perform LAP-BAND surgery.
Before he joined the UCSD Department of Surgery as Professor of Clinical Surgery in 2006, Dr. Horgan was Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery and Robotic Surgery Department and Co-Director of the Swallowing Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was also Director of the Minimally Invasive Bariatric Center in Chicago. In 2005, he was named one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
Dr. Horgan has advanced fellowship training in surgery and physiology of the esophagus and in laparoscopic surgery. He completed his M.D. degree, internship, and surgical residency at the Buenos Aires University School of Medicine in Argentina. Dr. Horgan speaks both English and Spanish.