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Dr. Uflacker has been practicing Vascular and Interventional Radiology since 1977. He became Professor and Director of the Division of Interventional Radiology at MUSC in 1993.
Dr. Uflacker attended Medical School, completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Radiology in his hometown of Porto Alegre, Brasil. In 1977 Dr. Uflacker began practicing Vascular Radiology at a private hospital and at the Hospital of the Catholic University in Porto Alegre. There he did extensive work in peripheral vascular diseases and gastrointestinal diseases. Also during that time Dr. Uflacker pursued a Master’s Degree in Gastroenterology with the presentation of an original thesis.
In the mid-seventies Interventional Radiology as it is known today was nonexistent, and the potential for using catheters and percutaneous access to the human body systems was just being developed - not only as a diagnostic tool, but much more importantly as a therapeutic tool. That revolution was happening while Dr. Uflacker was in training in Scandinavia. In subsequent years he started practicing Cardiovascular Radiology, which rapidly evolved in a radiological subspecialty dedicated to the treatment of vascular and visceral diseases. That subspecialty is now known as Interventional Radiology, because the radiologist started to intervene in the course of diseases (treat) rather than making only a diagnosis.
The activity surrounding the creation and growth
of Interventional Radiology resulted in remarkable developments in the technologies and in the biomedical devices. From that time on, Dr. Uflacker performed extensive work in peripheral diseases in balloon angioplasty and treatment of vascular blockages. He also became interested in gastrointestinal and liver diseases and portal hypertension, with pioneering work in gastrointestinal bleeding, treatment by means of transcatheter embolization, and liver cancer treatment.
Upon his arrival at the MUSC, a radical change in the division ensued which resulted in an unprecedented growth of 15% to 20% a year. At that time the Division of Interventional Radiology performed pivotal and pioneering work in the United States in the area of mechanical thrombectomy. In 1995/1996 the division pioneered, in South Carolina, the use of stent-grafts for the repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms.
More recently Dr. Uflacker's team was part of a national trial for new covered biliary stents for biliary malignancies which resulted in the approval of the first covered stent for biliary application in USA.
Research is a major effort of the division of Interventional Radiology. Current projects include the development of a technique for the aneurysm sac filling with a polymer, a new dialysis graft with self sealing ports, and a long term project related to the creation and growth of new vessels in limbs with lack of blood flow with a process known as angiogenesis.
Dr. Uflacker is a long-standing member of several specialty specific societies, including the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), and a fellow of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology of Europe (CIRSE). He has been an invited lecturer and/or presenter at meetings and conferences nationally and internationally.
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