OCT. 14, 2005 | This has been a rewarding year for John Eidt, M.D., at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

He was named UAMS Surgeon of the Year, was the Edgar J. Poth keynote speaker at the Southwestern Surgical Congress annual meeting, and he was honored by his graduating medical students with the Red Sash Award for outstanding teaching.  

Eidt, chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and director of the Vascular Center, is also UAMS’ principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health stroke study.

Eidt was named Surgeon of the Year by Michael Edwards, M.D., professor and chairman of the UAMS Department of Surgery. He said Eidt always puts his patients first and will sacrifice personally to provide world-class care, sometimes redefining the standards of vascular surgery.

“Dr. Eidt embodies all that is good, and all that anyone could want, in one’s personal surgeon,” Edwards said. “And he does it for everyone, the poorest, the richest, the grateful, and the ungrateful. And he does it every time. 

“Having witnessed his surgical care and leadership, I think he honors the sacred commitment of the doctor-patient relationship of medicine in a manner that few do, or even understand, today,” Edwards said. “Unlike many of the self-proclaimed experts dictating policy, he defines clinical excellence by example.”

Eidt’s selection to speak at the Edgar J. Poth Memorial Lectureship puts him in an elite group of surgeons. The lectureship was established in 1975 and was named after the 15^th president of the Southwestern Surgical Congress. Poth was professor and chairman of surgery at UAMS in 1939 before moving to the University of Texas at Galveston. He became professor of surgery in 1943 and was a leader in surgical research and education until his death in 1989. Poth contributed greatly to the understanding of intestinal surgery and was president of the Southwestern Surgical Congress in 1963.

Eidt joined UAMS in 1988. Since then he has been part of an exciting revolution in the less invasive endovascular procedures and has watched the department grow.

“Endovascular techniques allow us to accomplish many of the same goals as conventional vascular surgery, but with minimally invasive techniques that result in less pain, more rapid recovery and more durable long-term results,” Eidt said. “I am most proud of the growth of our endovascular program during the past five years.”

The stroke study, called CREST, which involves hospitals in the U.S. and Canada, will help determine whether a less invasive stent has better results than surgical removal of the plaque within the carotid artery in the neck.

UAMS was the only Arkansas hospital selected for the study because of UAMS’ experience using both conventional surgery and stenting. Strokes, or “brain attacks,” are sometimes caused by hardening of the arteries in the neck, which in turn interrupts blood flow to the brain.

When Eidt is not in surgery, teaching, leading his division or leading a clinical trial, he enjoys traveling and working on his home with his wife, Lacy, the director of student Affairs in the College of Medicine at UAMS, spending time with their two dogs, and cycling.

“I have a fairly high interest in competitive cycling despite being over the hill, and I continue to try to ride my bike as often as I can find the time,” Eidt said.