David E. Skarda, MD

Languages Spoken: English, Spanish

David E. Skarda, M.D. has specialized training and experience in minimally invasive surgical treatment for babies, children and teenagers. He is a board certified pediatric surgeon and attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Primary Children’s Medical Center. His passion is providing leading edge compassionate surgical care promptly and he ensures that you understand the procedures, options, risks and benefits. He is currently seeing new patients in his clinics at Primary Children’s Medical Center, Riverton Hospital and Utah Valley Regional Medical Center as well as in the Emergency Department, Newborn ICU, PICU, and general patient care units at Primary Children’s Medical Center.

He speaks Spanish.

He is happy to talk to you and/or your child’s doctor.

Dr. Skarda specializes in the following conditions: Inguinal hernia, Umbilical hernia, Undescended testicle, Hydrocele, Cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder), GT (placement of a stomach tube), Appendectomy (removal of the appendix), Vascular access (ports and central lines), Ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, Gastroesophageal reflux disease, Chest wall deformities (pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum), Pediatric endocrine surgery (thyroid and adrenal tumors/pancreas surgery)

Dr. David Skarda’s current clinical research includes appendicitis treatment process improvement, gastric stimulation for gastroparesis, cholecystectomy for abdominal pain, and the effectiveness of medical therapy in neonates with congenital diaphragm hernia. He has also assembled a team of physicians to provide phrenic nerve pacemaker therapy at Primary Children’s Medical Center (PCMC). He plays an active administrative role in the development of pediatric surgery at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC). He has published several case reports and has presented this work internationally. He is the site director for rotating residents and medical students at PCMC.

Dr. David Skarda improved the treatment of appendicitis at PCMC by constructing a treatment pathway for both complicated and uncomplicated appendicitis patients that focused on several main goals: make it simple, minimize length of stay, minimize cost, minimize exposure to antibiotics, minimize the use of PICC lines and improve outcomes based upon rate of readmission and rate of infectious complications. The new practice model has immensely simplified the care of this frequent clinical problem. He anticipates this new paradigm will have a significant impact on the care of pediatric patients with appendicitis nationally. The second phase of his project to improve the care of appendicitis has been the ratification and implementation of a unified doctors’ preference card designed to unify the materials used by all surgeons at PCMC for a laparoscopic appendectomy and dramatically reduce materials cost by approximately 85%.

Dr. David Skarda has obtained IRB approval for the implantation of the Enterra device, a Humanitarian Use Device, in children at PCMC. He collaborated with James Varni, Ph.D. of Texas A&M University and John Pohl, M.D. of PCMC in an IRB approved prospective observational study to monitor symptoms in patients that have the Enterra stimulator implanted for the treatment of nausea and vomiting related to gastroparesis. He anticipates implanting the first device over the next few months.

He also collaborated with James Varni and John Pohl in an IRB approved prospective observational study to monitor symptoms in pediatric patients that have a cholecystectomy performed for abdominal pain. This will be the first prospective observational study of this patient population.

During the Winter and early Spring of 2013 David Skarda assembled a group of pediatric pulmonologists, pediatric physiatrists aimed at phrenic nerve stimulation to treat ventilator dependence in select patients.

Dr. David Skarda has taken an active role in the development of the practice of pediatric surgery at UVRMC. He has cared for pediatric patients at that institution and he is currently the co-chair for the Surgical Services, Anesthesia, Pain Management and Sedation Services PCMC/Utah Valley Project as part of the gap analysis leading to the branding of UVRMC as a PCMC facility.

Dr. David Skarda has also authored and published several case reports including EC-CPR for pediatric hypothermic arrest, ECMO for respiratory failure in pediatric trauma patients, and persistent hemobilia after percutaneous liver biopsy. He presented the EC-CPR for pediatric hypothermic arrest data in Shanghai, China at the meeting of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons.

Dr. David Skarda is the site director for the general surgery residents and medical students as they rotate at PCMC. In this capacity, he remodeled the PCMC rotation for both first- and third-year surgical residents with an emphasis on education and mentoring rather than service obligations and he ensured the system was ACGME compliant in all aspects. He teaches the pediatric surgery lecture for each rotating group of third-year medical students and he assists with esophageal reflux lecture for second-year medical students. He teaches the pediatric surgery fellow and rotating surgery residents and medical students on lectures topics including mediastinal diseases, mediastinal tumors, phylloides tumors, congential diaphragm hernia, pediatric trauma, esophageal reflux. Additionally, he provides direct instruction to the pediatric surgery fellow, general surgery residents, rotating medical students, and nurse practitioners in the operating room and during clinical rounds.