Residency

UC Irvine Medical Center Rotation

UC Irvine Medical Center has a broad clinical base with a concentration of critical care, trauma and burn experience. The medical center is a designated Level I trauma center. It also houses an adult and pediatric burn unit. Thus, the clinical goals of this rotation are to become skilled in the following principles and techniques of critical care:

• Trauma and burn resuscitation
• Maxillofacial, craniofacial, extremity, and general trauma surgery and management
• Burn cases, grafting, and reconstruction
• Major flap, oncologic and microvascular reconstructions
• Hand surgery
• General surgery

Burn Surgery Experience

Residents participate in the comprehensive care of burn patients from acute care through rehabilitation. The multidisciplinary structure of this service also develops skills in effective interdisciplinary relationships for care of critically ill patients, which is found in few other programs.

Hand and Upper Extremity
This rotation is performed at UC Irvine Medical Center under the direction of Amber Leis, MD as well as at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System.

In addition, a variety of faculty members offer more exposure through their practices. The Level I trauma center provides care for hand trauma and replantation.

Microvascular treatment is provided by plastic surgery residents and attendings in plastic surgery. The primary goal of this rotation is to master the principles of management, surgery and therapy of hand and upper extremity disorders in adults and children. It also provides a strong digital and extremity replantation experience and reinforces the goals of strengthening microsurgical experience. This rotation is supplemented by several symposia in anatomy, internal fixation and microsurgery.

Head and Neck Surgery
Our residents receive an in-depth head and neck experience. The goals of education, experience and operative management in head and neck oncologic surgery is achieved by a multidisciplinary head and neck service staffed by teams from plastic surgery, otolaryngology (ENT) and general surgical oncology. Further, facial call is shared equally with the ENT service, alternating every other week. Additional cases are done in combination at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Irvine and Anaheim Hills.

Pediatric/Cleft/Craniofacial
This rotation is centered on the pediatric plastic surgery service at UC Irvine Medical Center, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, CHOC Children's Hospital of Orange County. The primary goals of these rotations are to learn the principles and techniques of cleft lip and palate, craniofacial and other congenital and acquired anomalies.

The related goals of outpatient pre- and post-operative evaluation and management of these pediatric subspecialties are gained by attendance at the interdisciplinary panels at Long Beach Memorial and CHOC. This experience takes place under the direction of Raj Vyas MD and Daniel Jaffurs MD at CHOC and Keith Hurvitz MD at Long Beach Memorial.

Long Beach Memorial Medical Center

These rotations are directed by Keith Hurvitz, MD and Steven Grant, MD. They provide a wealth of experience at Millers Children's Hospital in Long Beach and a variety of clinical disciplines.

Experience includes hand surgery, ophthalmological plastic surgery, pediatric and adult plastic surgery, and general surgery (vascular, GI, oncology, pediatrics, etc).

Newport Beach Surgery Center
This rotation is directed by Daniel Kim, MD. Residents participate in a wide range of cosmetic surgery.

VA Long Beach Healthcare System
Under the direction of several full time faculty, residents are exposed to a wide range of plastic and hand surgery experiences, including working with the spinal cord team and reconstruction of decubitus ulcers and upper extremity procedures.

The opportunities for our plastic surgery residents to expand and achieve their educational goals are enhanced by several specialized facilities developed within the university and teaching hospitals of our program. They include:

• Microsurgery Training Laboratory
  This facility for basic and advanced training in microsurgery is located in our research laboratories. Residents take a formal training course in microsurgery on matriculation, and return as needed for practice. Residents have 24 hour access to a surgical microscope in the lab for ongoing additional practice. Plastic Surgery residents take part in a hands-on microsurgery course for 1 week under the direction of Brock Lanier, MD and the orthopedic surgery department on in vivo models.

• Fresh Tissue Dissection and Surgical Practice
  This facility is devoted to anatomic dissection of fresh cadavers for training and research purposes. Material is available for dissection as needed.

• Anatomy lab Once a month in the beginning of the academic year, residents gather to perform preselected cadaver flap dissections under the supervision of a volunteer faculty member.

• Journal club Residents and faculty meet on a quarterly basis and discuss relevant clinical articles and evidence based medicine.

• Aesthetic conference Residents meet quarterly with a volunteer community plastic surgeon to discuss advanced cosmetic procedures and the fundamentals of setting up and running an aesthetic practice.

• Injection clinic Residents gain hands-on experience in managing an injection clinic for nonsurgical facial rejuvenation with various products.

• Skin care training sessions Residents receive didactic educational sessions on cutting edge skin care health and prevention of facial aging.

• Orange County Society of Plastic Surgery A monthly dinner is held wherein residents may network with other plastic surgeons in the community.
• Chief Resident Clinic Chief residents are given additional autonomy in management of cosmetic and reconstructive patients.

Academic Conferences

Residents are supported in attending annual academic conferences based on their level of training.

PGY 1: Intern boot camp

PGY 2: Plastic Surgery Research Council Meeting

PGY 3: California Society of Plastic Surgeons

PGY 4: American Association of Plastic Surgeons

PGY 5: Microsurgical clinical experience in Taiwan at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital under the direction of Dr. Fu Chen Wei

PGY 6: American Society of Plastic Surgery meeting

Continuing medical education involves a disciplined and regular review of the literature, and attendance at relevant meetings, courses and conferences.

An excellent compendium and summary of the CME process for plastic surgeons is contained in the Resource Book for Plastic Surgery Residents. It is distributed annually by the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation.

We have also provided a resource manual more specific to the residency program at UC Irvine.