Christopher C McCoy, MD

Dr. Christopher McCoy is a double board-certified surgeon who specializes in trauma, surgical critical care, emergency general surgery and general surgery, collectively known as the specialty of acute care surgery (ACS).

Dr. McCoy is a member of the acute care surgery team at The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City. The surgeons of the ACS team work with students, residents, fellows, and nurse practitioners to provide comprehensive trauma and surgical care to patients who may arrive to the hospital through the Emergency Department or are met by our comprehensive surgical care team for elective general surgery.

As an acute care surgeon, Dr. McCoy cares for a vast array of surgical diseases, including gallbladder problems, appendicitis, bowel obstruction, abdominal and groin hernias, soft tissue injury or infection, as well as injury to the liver, spleen, intestines, ribs and lungs. Patients who require admission to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) remain under the care of acute care surgeons who are also board-certified in surgical critical care. In the SICU, acute care surgeons manage medications to support blood pressure, antibiotics, pain and sedation. Acute care surgeons perform bedside procedures such as central line placement (large IVs), bronchoscopy (to clear the lungs), tracheostomy (surgically placed breathing tube) and gastric tubes (feeding tubes).

Acute care surgeons help coordinate the care of injured patients and may consult colleagues from other departments such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, vascular surgery or interventional radiology, depending on the type and severity of injury. Acute care surgeons provide care for patients from hospital admission through hospital discharge and routinely see patients after a hospitalization.

Dr. McCoy is an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he enjoys teaching residents, students and fellows who learn and work with him in the hospital setting. He is also active at the regional and national level. He has a special interest in resuscitation strategies for trauma and emergency general surgery patients.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and graduated from medical school from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed a residency and research fellowship in general surgery at Duke University and completed his training in trauma and critical care at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.