Cancer heavy OMFS programs?

[iluvnetters]

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I know that Jacksonville, michigan, UAB, OHSU are all cancer heavy, but does anybody have any other programs that would match these in terms of cancer? Preferably ones where OMFS does the ablation, harvest, and anastomosis on free flaps?

 

[C0LA]

BU

 

[RoquanSmith03]

I interned at OHSU last year. Yes they do a lot of cancer but they do a ton of other stuffs as well.
and from a cancer standpoint, they do their own ablation, harvest, and anastomosis. Chiefs, now 5th years, usually do their own neck dissection or at least 90% of it. You have ton of autonomy there. Clinic kinda sucks though hahaha but again, thats everywhere

 

[dentistrydmd]

McGill (they also have a fellowship in maxillofacial oncology and microvascular reconstruction)

 

[TheLoneRongeur]

Shreveport, Houston, Miami, Maryland

 

[piratewow]

Parkland and Mayo also have pretty good cancer exposure from what I've heard. . Case has some cancer but I don't think they get to do all of it, either ablation or recon (old info maybe different now). Houston has lots of free flaps and trauma, is definitely a full scope program, and they have a MORS fellowship as well. Probably can't beat Shreveport volume wise, but Houston is also a much nicer place to live lol.

I've seen UCSF, Christiana care, and Cook County mentioned before wrt free flap exposure but idk much about them.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

I know that Jacksonville, michigan, UAB, OHSU are all cancer heavy, but does anybody have any other programs that would match these in terms of cancer? Preferably ones where OMFS does the ablation, harvest, and anastomosis on free flaps?

I’m at Michigan. I wouldn’t say we are cancer HEAVY. We do a lot of path and reconstructive surgery yeah but are definitely rounded out with among the highest case volumes in orthognathic, craniofacial and TMJ surgery as well.

Residents don’t do flap checks also (we have NP’s and PA’s).... huge plus to only worry about operating and not checking the flap every 2 hours.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

I know that Jacksonville, michigan, UAB, OHSU are all cancer heavy, but does anybody have any other programs that would match these in terms of cancer? Preferably ones where OMFS does the ablation, harvest, and anastomosis on free flaps?

NYU started doing free flaps recently. They do lots of local flaps too. All the programs mentioned above do free flaps along with St. John’s Detroit, Cook county, BU, Loma Linda, Penn, Mayo, Buffalo, Knoxville, and Case (they recently hired Joseph Helman who is a savant).

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Are they still "malignant"? Thats what I've heard in the past atleast.

Sounds like heaven hahaha besides the private med school

Ah yes forgot about these ones. any idea on how houston and miami are? I'd like to stay out of shreveport and I've heard sour things about maryland aside from their tremendous training.

This is a public forum that’s monitored by residents, faculty and program directors. It’s not wise to be marking institutions as ‘malignant’ or “staying out of Shreveport” or “sour things about Maryland”... won’t serve you well at all

 

[RoquanSmith03]

The best thing about OHSU is their med school is free and their curriculum.
24 months to finish med school and anesthesia. Then 12 months of general surgery. And then 36 months of straight OMFS without interruption.

 

[Sublimazing]

Shreveport has 6 fellowship trained cancer attendings. I scrubbed in on nearly 7x as many flaps as I placed dental implants.

 

[piratewow]

Shreveport has 6 fellowship trained cancer attendings. I scrubbed in on nearly 7x as many flaps as I placed dental implants.

For someone interested in micro is it better to go somewhere heavy on cancer for residency given that most people end up doing fellowships anyways? What role do 5th/6yrs play during flap surgeries relative to fellows and attendings at Shreveport?

 

[Sublimazing]

For someone interested in micro is it better to go somewhere heavy on cancer for residency given that most people end up doing fellowships anyways? What role do 5th/6yrs play during flap surgeries relative to fellows and attendings at Shreveport?

If you are 100% that you want to do micro there probably aren’t many programs that will expose you to micro/cancer like Shreveport. As I mentioned 6 of the 7 fulltime attendings did a cancer fellowship. When I was there from 2014 - 2020 many weeks the majority of cases were fellow cases (mostly cancer resections/free flaps/extremity flaps).

Now I can only speak to my 6 years, but none of my co residents were ever primary on a neck dissection, harvested a free flap, or sat under the scope...but we were scrubbed and certainly assisted the fellows with dozens and dozens of necks, and closed many many extremities. Again, from my experience, no one who graduated over the past 4 years could attempt a neck dissection, free flap harvest, or inset by any means. But definitely the exposure and amount of micro/cancer is very heavy from day 1.

I would reach out to the current program director for more specific information and plans for the future.

 

[nealofgrafton]

if you like cancer have a look at Ascension St. Johns in Detroit. Dr. Ramirez is a Rui Fernandez fellow trained guy. He loves flaps and stood up a fellowship there. when i was a non cat the chiefs were with him a bunch and a gal that graduated out of is doing primarily cancer stuff in FL without doing a fellowship as far as I know
- from a former S J intern '14 -15