Dr. Michael Crittenden, MD

Dr. Michael Crittenden is a cardiothoracic surgeon practicing in Saint Louis, MO. Dr. Crittenden specializes in surgical procedues of vital organs in the chest such as the heart, lungs, esophagus and more. As a cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Crittenden typically treats conditions like heart disease and lung disease. This class of surgeon can also include cardiac surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, congenital heart surgeons and general thoracic surgeons.

Dr. Crittenden was born and raised in Washington D.C. He attended the Nativity Catholic School, Woodward Preparatory School and St. John's College High School. He earned his undergraduate degree in Pre-Professional Studies at the University of  Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana in 1974. He returned to the District to attend Georgetown University School of Medicine graduating in 1979.

Dr. Crittenden received his surgical training (internship and residency) at Howard University Hospital from 1979 to 1984. The following year he was a trauma/critical care fellow at the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services in Baltimore, Maryland. From 1985 to 1987, Dr. Crittenden was a resident in Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Following his thoracic residency, Dr. Crittenden served as a Senior Staff Fellow in the Surgery Branch at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

In 1989, he joined the Department of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. In 1991, Dr. Crittenden was named Chief of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Howard University Hospital where he remained until 1993. Dr. Crittenden was recruited to join the Cardiac Surgery Service at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Over the next sixteen years, he served as the Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit from 1995 to 2006 and as Acting Chief of the Section of Cardiac Surgery from 2007 to 2009. During his tenure in Boston, the Cardiac Surgery Service at the VA won two Center of Excellence designations (1997 and 2001).

In March 2009, Dr. Crittenden was recruited to the St. Louis VA Medical Center to become Chief of the Surgical Service and Chief of Cardiac Surgery. He is currently an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine.  For the next six years, he focused on developing a "world class" Surgical Service at the VA St Louis Healthcare System.  Through the creation of a surgical critical care service and collaborating with OR nursing and anesthesia, the operative volume nearly doubled which included esophageal, pancreas and liver resections;pneumonectomy and complex vascular surgery.  In 2015, the VA St Louis Cardiac Surgery Section performed the first cardiac operation at the VA in St Louis. Since then over 250 Veterans have undergone cardiac operations at the Medical Center.

Dr. Crittenden has served the Food and Drug Administration as a voting member of and a consultant to the Circulatory Systems Device Panel, Office of Device Evaluation. He was a member of the American Heart Association's Radiology, Imaging and Surgery Study Section from 2002 to 2004. He was elected Vice President (2002-2004) then President of the Association of Black Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons (2004-2006). He has authored or co-authored numerous original articles, abstracts, posters and book chapters. He has reviewed manuscripts for publication in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Surgeons and the American Journal of Surgery. He has also served on the editorial board of the open access Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Dr. Crittenden's research and career interests have focused on myocardial preservation; postoperative critical care; cerebral function following cardiac surgery and patient safety in surgery. He shares two device patents for a mobile device which allows for warm perfusion of donor organs with his colleagues from Boston. 

After serving as the Acting Chief of Staff for 10 months in 2016, Dr. Crittenden was selected to serve as the full time Chief of Staff at VA St Louis in June 2017. His current focus is building a world class, academic VA Medical Center.