Arunachalam Thenappan, MD

Arunachalam (Arun) Thenappan is a triple board certified (Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and General Surgery) Pediatric General Surgeon at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Pediatric Trauma Medical Director at Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He is an expert in open and minimally invasive surgery for children and has particular interest in minimally invasive hernia repair and chest wall abnormalities. He has great interest in the creation and adoption of protocols and guidelines in surgical care to improve safety and patient outcomes. He is passionate about surgical education and is a member of the core faculty of the Rutgers RWJMS General Surgery Residency Program. He also serves as a mentor to surgical residents, especially those interested in pursuing a career in pediatric surgery.

Dr. Thenappan received his medical degree from the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and then completed his general surgery training at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital where he also pursued a two-year research fellowship. Following residency, he completed a Surgical Critical Care fellowship at the University of Michigan, followed by a Pediatric Surgery fellowship at NYP/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York. He joined the faculty here at Rutgers/RWJMS in 2021 after spending 3 years as an Attending Surgeon and the Director of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC. In his free time, Dr. Thenappan enjoys spending time with his family and is an ardent tennis player.