Walter Randolph “Ranny” Chitwood, Jr., MD

1946 -

Walter Randolph Chitwood, Jr., MD
Walter Randolph "Ranny" Chitwood, Jr., MD. Image Source: ECU News Services

The son and grandson of small-town physicians in the southern Virginia mountains, Dr. Walter Randolph “Ranny” Chitwood, Jr., won the world’s notice when he became, in May 2000, the first surgeon in North America (and the second ever) to perform open-heart surgery – a mitral valve repair – using the newly developed da Vinci robotic surgical system. The da Vinci system, made by Intuitive Surgical of Sunnyvale, California with Chitwood’s input, allows miniature instruments inserted through tiny incisions to be controlled remotely via a console equipped with a large monitor onto which an endoscopic camera projects the surgical procedure 3-D. ECU’s Brody School of Medicine was then the youngest in the state and a newcomer to technologically advanced heart surgery. Yet Chitwood’s masterful use of the da Vinci system garnered international attention and unprecedented respect for the school and the surgeon as global leaders in robotic heart surgery. Chitwood himself had already earned world recognition the year before when he became the first American to perform open-heart robotic surgery with a procedure he completed in Leipzig, Germany, followed by another 11 robotic procedures, all in Europe, affording him considerable experience with the cutting-edge techniques long before making North American history with the robotic mitral valve repair at Pitt Memorial Hospital (now Vidant). Earlier, in 1996, Chitwood had already moved away from old-fashioned surgical approaches – involving large incisions, sawing through the sternum, and separating the ribcage – by pioneering laparoscopic mitral valve surgery. Chitwood’s use of the da Vinci system, however, took the minimally-invasive approach to new heights, significantly reducing the trauma of surgery and recovery time.

Three years later, Chitwood’s renown and that of Brody School of Medicine prompted state funding of $60 million for a ECU cardiovascular institute. By then, Chitwood’s standing as a faculty-surgeon had skyrocketed: he served not only as chair of the Brody Department of Surgery, but as senior associate vice chancellor for health sciences, chief of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery services, and director of the N.C. Cardiovascular Diseases Institute for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. Not surprisingly, many at ECU and in the community called the new facility “Chitwood’s hospital.” Chitwood went on to perform a career total of over 10,000 surgical procedures in addition to authoring over 250 scientific articles as well as delivering over 60 invited lectures, nationally and internationally.

Chitwood’s pioneering contributions to technological advances in surgical practice coupled with the infrastructure investment by the state and the university in cardiovascular medicine that resulted quickly from those contributions easily make him one of the most outstanding physician-faculty members at ECU, one well exemplifying, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the university’s motto of service to humanity in technologically sophisticated ways.

Chitwood graduated from Wytheville High School in western Virginia and then completed his undergraduate studies at Hampden-Sydney College in 1968. Not intending, initially, to pursue medicine, he first worked for DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, before returning to his alma mater to teach biology for a year. Soon, Chitwood did set his sights on medicine, completing his medical degree at the University of Virginia in 1974 before undertaking a ten-year residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Duke led by David C. Sabiston, Jr.

In 1984, Chitwood accepted a position at Brody School of Medicine as chief of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery. In 1996, he was named chair of the Brody Department of Surgery. In 2003, he was named senior associate vice chancellor in charge of developing the school’s newly funded facility, the East Carolina Heart Institute. In 2007, Chitwood was named the first recipient of the Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Distinguished Chair in Medicine. In addition to performing the first robotic mitral valve operation, the Robotic Surgical Center he subsequently founded trained more than 450 surgeon-practitioners worldwide. In 2017, two years after his retirement as a practicing surgeon, the W. Randolph Chitwood Distinguished Chair of Surgery was established in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences in his honor.

Chitwood’s contributions to advances in cardiothoracic surgery have brought him a rarely matched level of professional recognition internationally. In 2003, he was elected into the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is also an honorary member of the of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons, and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland. In 2004, he received the O. Max Gardner Award from the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. In 2009 he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for contributions to the health and welfare of diverse populations nationally and internationally. In 2012, he was awarded the Bakoulev Premium Medal from the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Bakoulev Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery for his work in minimally invasive cardiac procedures.

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Related Materials

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr. announced as lead of the East Carolina Heart Institute, 2007. Image Source: ECU News Service, Photo by Cliff Hollis

Dr. Randolph Chitwood, far left, performs surgery from the da Vinci Surgical System console during the 100th mitral valve surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, 2003. Image Source: ECU News Service, Photo by Cliff Hollis.

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr. completes 400th robot-assisted mitral valve repair. Image Source: ECU News Service

Cardiothoracic surgeons at University Health Systems of Easten Carolina in Greenville prepare the da Vinci surgical robot for a mitral valve procedure, 2000. Image Source: ECU News Service, Photo by Cliff Hollis.

?Citation Information

Title: Walter Randolph “Ranny” Chitwood, Jr., MD

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 2/11/2022

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