Board certified in both general surgery and thoracic surgery, Puja G. Khaitan, MD, FACS, is the Director of Esophageal Surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Associate Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. The majority of Dr. Khaitan’s practice involves minimally-invasive (primarily robotic), non-cardiac chest surgeries with a focus on lung cancer, mesothelioma, esophageal cancer, chest wall tumors, and mediastinal masses. She also sees patients for benign pathologies such as airway strictures, pulmonary nodules, chest wall defects, esophageal leiomyomas, esophageal diverticulum, hiatal hernias, and achalasia.
Dr. Khaitan received her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern. She then pursued a general surgery residency at Emory University Hospital, with a simultaneous two-year NIH-T32 research fellowship at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Cancer Biology. Subsequently, she completed her cardiothoracic training at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Prior to joining MedStar Washington in 2017, she was an Assistant Professor at Houston Methodist Hospital for 4 years.
Dr. Khaitan’s research interests include methodologies for diagnosing thoracic pathologies early, preventive medicine, and understanding why different patients respond differently to different treatment regimens. More specifically, her research focus is on esophageal cancer as well as studying its response to chemo-radiation. Dr. Khaitan is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters; gives lectures both nationally and internationally; and reviews various journals. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including Top Surgeon in Houston, TX by the International Association of HealthCare Professionals (IAHCP) in 2014, the Houston Methodist Faculty Award of Excellence in 2016, the Fondren-Brown Cardiothoracic OR Nursing Staff Award in 2016, Leading Physicians of the World in 2014 and 2018, and Carolyn Reed Fellowship Training Award in 2020. She is a member of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), the European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS), the American Association for Academic Surgery (AAS), the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (STSA), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the General Thoracic Surgery Club (GTSC), and the American College of Surgeons (ACS).
