Milton Waner, MD, M.B.,B.Ch.(Wits.), FCS(SA), is a pediatric facial plastic surgeon and is Director of the Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York.

Dr. Waner earned his M.B., B.Ch.(Wits) degree at the University of Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa. After graduating, he completed his internship and general surgical training at the University of the Witwatersrand affiliated hospitals and his residency in the Division of Otolaryngology/Department of Surgery at the University of Witwatersrand. He also completed a research fellowship in head and neck cancer at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He accepted a faculty position in the Department of Surgery at the University of Sydney in Australia. In 1988, he left Australia to join the faculty of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In 2001, he was promoted to the rank of Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock. He also held the Benjamin and Milton Waner Endowed Chair in Pediatric Facial Plastic Surgery at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Waner has authored and co-authored well over 100 peer reviewed articles, 37 book chapters, and 3 textbooks concerning hemangiomas, vascular malformations of the head and neck, and related topics. His work has been cited about 6,000 times in the world literature. He is considered a world authority in hemangiomas and vascular malformations. Dr. Waner has been at the forefront of many breakthoughs in our understanding of hemangiomas and vascular malformations. He promoted early intervention for children with hemangiomas and has developed many surgical approaches to the treatment of hemangiomas and vascular malformations. He was the first to recognize the difference between focal and segmental hemangiomas and was a co-author on the paper that described the first immunohistochemical marker for hemangiomas, GLUT1. He was a pioneer in the development of the medical application for copper vapor lasers and has remained at the forefront in both clinical and basic science research in the field of lasers in medicine.

Dr. Waner holds numerous US and international patents on medical devices and one of his most recent inventions is a pair of infrared glasses that can visualize veins through intact skin. This instrument and others similar to it are now being used in hospitals throughout the world. He has served as the surgical representative on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and was nominated to run for president of that society. He is a member of several societies including the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Waner is the recipient of numerous awards. These include an Honor Award presented by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Children’s Miracle Network Achievement Award.

He has been made an honorary member of the British Academy of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. Recently, a tugboat operating in New York harbor was named after him (Dr. Milton Waner, USA). Dr. Waner is consistently included in several lists of top physicians including, America’s Top Doctors, The Best Doctors in America and The Best Doctors in New York and was featured on the front cover as one of the “Best Doctors: in the 1999 US News and World Report.