Hariharan Thangarajah, M.D., M.P.H.

Bio

Dr. Thangarajah is Section Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Rady Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. He is board certified in general and pediatric surgery, and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

He obtained his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and attended medical school at UC San Francisco as a Regents Scholar. Dr. Thangarajah trained in general surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. During his residency training, he pursued a research fellowship in regenerative medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and obtained a Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He went on to complete a fellowship in pediatric general and thoracic surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Thangarajah practiced as a staff surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital prior to moving to San Diego.

Dr. Thangarajah practices the full breadth of pediatric surgery and performs a high number of operations annually. He has expertise in minimally invasive (laparoscopic) surgery, where small incisions and a video camera are used to perform operations, leading to less postoperative pain and a faster recovery. He is the first surgeon in the San Diego area to successfully perform certain advanced pediatric laparoscopic procedures. Dr. Thangarajah has specific clinical interests in congenital anomalies, pediatric surgical oncology, hepatobiliary disease and trauma.

As a faculty member in the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Thangarajah is involved in the training of medical students, residents and surgical fellows. He is also actively involved in clinical research. His research interests include pediatric trauma, variations in the delivery of pediatric surgical care, and global health.

Dr. Thangarajah recognizes that having a child undergo surgery can be a scary and stressful time. Knowing that good communication can alleviate some of this anxiety, he spends ample time discussing the details of a procedure with patients and families, ensuring that all questions are answered. He finds nothing more rewarding than having a child return to good health after a successful operation. His care philosophy is to treat patients the way he would want his family treated.

Publications

Estimates of Treatable Deaths Within the First 20 Years of Life from Scaling Up Surgical Care at First-Level Hospitals in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Sykes AG, Seyi-Olajide J, Ameh EA, Ozgediz D, Abbas A, Abib S, Ademuyiwa A, Ali A, Aziz TT, Chowdhury TK, Abdelhafeez H, Ignacio RC, Keller B, Klazura G, Kling K, Martin B, Philipo GS, Thangarajah H, Yap A, Meara JG, Bundy DAP, Jamison DT, Mock CN, Bickler SW, On behalf of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery.

Modified laparoscopic gastrostomy tube placement in children: Does subcutaneous suture type matter?
Sykes AG, Prieto JM, Thangarajah H, Keller BA, Kling KM, Ignacio RC Jr, Lazar DA

Balloons for kids: Anatomic candidacy and optimal catheter size for pediatric resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta.
Sykes AG, Sisson WB, Wang LJ, Martin MJ, Thangarajah H, Naheedy J, Fernandez N, Nelles ME, Ignacio RC Jr

Just Stick a Scope in: Laparoscopic Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Placement in the Pediatric Reoperative Abdomen.
Sykes AG, Sisson WB, Gonda DD, Kling KM, Ignacio RC, Thangarajah H, Bickler SW, Levy ML, Lazar DA

Extremes of age are associated with differences in the expression of selected pattern recognition receptor genes and ACE2, the receptor for SARS-CoV-2: implications for the epidemiology of COVID-19 disease.
Bickler SW, Cauvi DM, Fisch KM, Prieto JM, Sykes AG, Thangarajah H, Lazar DA, Ignacio RC, Gerstmann DR, Ryan AF, Bickler PE, De Maio A

Patience is a virtue: Multiple preoperative visits are associated with decreased recurrence in pediatric pilonidal disease.
Prieto JM, Thangarajah H, Ignacio RC, Bickler SW, Kling KM, Saenz NC, Garcia SV, Lazar DA

An Analysis of Essential Pediatric Surgical Cases Encountered During a Decade of Large-Scale Military Humanitarian Aid Missions.
Gaidry AD, Lizardo RE, Prieto JM, Brill JB, Hernandez AA, Moore HN, Henry MC, Ricca RL Jr, Thangarajah H, Bickler SW, Ignacio RC

Patient-oriented online resources in pediatric surgery: Are we failing the readability test?
Prieto JM, West-Santos C, Montgomery AS, Patwardhan U, Lazar DA, Thangarajah H, Bickler SW, Huang EY, Fairbanks TJ, Ignacio RC

Estimates of number of children and adolescents without access to surgical care.
Mullapudi B, Grabski D, Ameh E, Ozgediz D, Thangarajah H, Kling K, Alkire B, Meara JG, Bickler S

Operative treatment for intussusception: Should an incidental appendectomy be performed?
Wang A, Prieto JM, Ward E, Bickler S, Henry M, Kling K, Thangarajah H, Ignacio R Jr

Leveraging the Incidence, Burden, and Fiscal Implications of Unplanned Hospital Revisits for the Prioritization of Prevention Efforts in Pediatric Surgery.
Cameron DB, Serres SK, Glass CC, Milliren CE, Graham DA, Anandalwar S, Thangarajah H, Goldin AB, Hall M, Rangel SJ

Primary laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy tubes as a feeding modality in the pediatric population.
Onwubiko C, Weil BR, Bairdain S, Hall AM, Perkins JM, Thangarajah H, McSweeney ME, Smithers CJ

Quantifying the Burden of Interhospital Cost Variation in Pediatric Surgery: Implications for the Prioritization of Comparative Effectiveness Research.
Cameron DB, Graham DA, Milliren CE, Glass CC, Feng C, Sidhwa F, Thangarajah H, Hall M, Rangel SJ

Diabetes irreversibly depletes bone marrow-derived mesenchymal progenitor cell subpopulations.
Januszyk M, Sorkin M, Glotzbach JP, Vial IN, Maan ZN, Rennert RC, Duscher D, Thangarajah H, Longaker MT, Butte AJ, Gurtner GC

An information theoretic, microfluidic-based single cell analysis permits identification of subpopulations among putatively homogeneous stem cells.
Glotzbach JP, Januszyk M, Vial IN, Wong VW, Gelbard A, Kalisky T, Thangarajah H, Longaker MT, Quake SR, Chu G, Gurtner GC

Splenic rupture after uncomplicated colonoscopy.
Sachdev S, Thangarajah H, Keddington J

Akt-mediated mechanotransduction in murine fibroblasts during hypertrophic scar formation.
Paterno J, Vial IN, Wong VW, Rustad KC, Sorkin M, Shi Y, Bhatt KA, Thangarajah H, Glotzbach JP, Gurtner GC

HIF-1alpha dysfunction in diabetes.
Thangarajah H, Vial IN, Grogan RH, Yao D, Shi Y, Januszyk M, Galiano RD, Chang EI, Galvez MG, Glotzbach JP, Wong VW, Brownlee M, Gurtner GC

The molecular basis for impaired hypoxia-induced VEGF expression in diabetic tissues.
Thangarajah H, Yao D, Chang EI, Shi Y, Jazayeri L, Vial IN, Galiano RD, Du XL, Grogan R, Galvez MG, Januszyk M, Brownlee M, Gurtner GC

SDF-1 alpha expression during wound healing in the aged is HIF dependent.
Loh SA, Chang EI, Galvez MG, Thangarajah H, El-Ftesi S, Vial IN, Lin DA, Gurtner GC

Mesenchymal stem cells can participate in ischemic neovascularization.
Hamou C, Callaghan MJ, Thangarajah H, Chang E, Chang EI, Grogan RH, Paterno J, Vial IN, Jazayeri L, Gurtner GC

IFATS collection: Adipose stromal cells adopt a proangiogenic phenotype under the influence of hypoxia.
Thangarajah H, Vial IN, Chang E, El-Ftesi S, Januszyk M, Chang EI, Paterno J, Neofytou E, Longaker MT, Gurtner GC

Hypoxia, hormones, and endothelial progenitor cells in hemangioma.
Chang EI, Chang EI, Thangarajah H, Hamou C, Gurtner GC

Gastric H-K-ATPase and acid-resistant surface proteins.
Thangarajah H, Wong A, Chow DC, Crothers JM Jr, Forte JG

See the full listing of this physician's publications on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine.

PubMed is a third-party website and not affiliated with Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.