Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Dr King is a trauma and acute care surgeon with military combat experience at the Massachusetts General Hospital Trauma Center. His practice is limited to caring for the acutely injured and traumatized, emergent surgical illnesses, as well as surgical critical care. This includes treatment of all traumatic conditions, such as traumatic brain injury, pneumothorax, hemothorax, pulmonary contusion, blunt cardiac injury, liver and splenic lacerations, pancreatic injury, mesenteric lacerations, pelvic fractures, spine fractures, renal injuries, and all injuries to the intestines and blood vessels. Dr King treats all conditions that are the result of penetrating injuries, such as gunshot and stab wounds, as well as blunt trauma such as falls, assaults, and motor vehicle crashes.

Dr King also manages and treats emergent surgical conditions such as acute appendicitis, diverticulitis, bowel obstruction, hernias, peptic ulcers, perforated gastric and duodenal ulcers, foreign body ingestions, enterocutaneous fistula, massive gastrointestinal bleeding, mesenteric ischemia, Ogilvie's Syndrome, acute cholecystitis, acute cholangitis, pancreatitis, abdominal compartment syndrome, gas gangrene, and necrotizing fasciitis.

In the intensive care unit, Dr King cares for patients with cardiopulmonary failure, pneumonia, cardiogenic shock, arrhythmias, malnutrition, hyperglycemia, actue renal failure, multisystem organ failure, sepsis, bacteremia, delerium, agitation, pain control, acute respiratory distress syndrome, hypertension, and all conditions requiring mechanical ventilation.

Dr King is an attending surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital Trauma Center.

Research

Dr King's research is mainly devoted to novel hemostatics for intracavitary hemorrhage control and novel monitoring technologies for detection of occult injury. He has funded research support and grants from the Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as industry support for clinical trials of complicated wound healing.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

Watertown's Arsenal Medical Developing Foam to Buy Time for Wounded Soldiers

David R. King, MD, director of the Knight Surgical Research Lab at Mass General, is part of a team investigating the use of a biofoam to assist wounded soldiers.