Professor Mandika Wijeyaratne

Mandika Wijeyaratne, MS, MD, FRCS is the Chair Professor of Surgery, at The Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, and chief of the University Vascular and Organ Transplant program. He received his medical education at the University of Colombo and then went on to specialize in Surgery and was Board Certified by the PGIM in Colombo in 1990. He then joined the Department of Surgery academic staff and then in 1999 proceeded to research carotid bifurcation plaques and obtain MD by thesis at the University of Leeds, England. Thereafter he introduced Carotid Endarterectomy surgery for stroke prevention in Sri Lanka. Other key contributions to vascular surgery were the introduction of colour duplex vascular imaging and extreme distal bypass surgery for amputation prevention particularly in the ageing diabetic population. All these procedures are in mainstream practice today. He also contributes exhaustively to wound care education and the development of guidelines for the management of the diabetic foot locally and internationally.

In parallel with his interests in vascular disease he is also interested in expanding the horizons of organs transplantation surgery in Sri Lanka. This resulted in visits to centres of excellence in Liver transplantation at the Starzl Institute in Pittsburgh, Leeds liver unit and Medanta in New Delhi. This experience led to the first successful liver transplant operation in Sri Lanka in 2010. He has also extended the kidney transplant program to the Army Hospital and the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for children. To date he has performed over 1200 kidney transplants in Sri Lanka.

He has lectured extensively throughout the country and in Asia on outcomes of distal bypass surgery and wound care. He was the principle investigator in a first in man study of a polyurethane vascular graft for early puncture. His other areas of research include attenuation of ischaemia reperfusion injury and development of novel wound dressings.

He has first author publications in the BJS, JVs and EJVES. He has also  authored book chapters on vascular injuries in Sri Lanka, the diabetic foot and the diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysms and won many awards including several orations that include the SLMA oration.