I am Dr. Joe Upton and I am a plastic surgeon who works mostly with the lower and upper extremities. When I first started here, Dr. John Mulliken and I saw a number of vascular anomaly cases while working in Dr. Judah Folkman’s lab on vascular problems. Prior to coming to Children’s, I never knew about vascular anomalies; there was very little known about them. While here, our chief, Dr. Murray, encouraged us to research and learn more about these disorders. Once I had the opportunity to work with patients, I began to learn more. Within five to ten years, we developed the clinic.

What are some of the rewards of working with this population?
I really enjoy both taking care of patients and the challenges of performing surgery on this population. One of the nice things about these surgeries is that there is instant gratification in terms of being able to predict what kind of outcomes you are going to see. Another reward is that these patients are often treated elsewhere unsuccessfully, so it is very gratifying to know that you are helping them. Patients are usually pretty frustrated by the time they are adolescents or young adults, as are the families, and they are always appreciative if we can help.