fellowships after general surgery

[ribcrackindoc]

What fellowships are available after general surgery residency. I know there is CT surgery and vascular surgery, are there others????????????? are they difficult to get into??????????????

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[DD214_DOC]

trauma surgery; I believe this one is not very competitive.

 

[dr.evil]

Plastic surgery - probably the most competitive right now
Cardiothoracic/Cardiovascular
Vascular
Laparoscopic
Trauma/Critical Care
Colorectal
Thoracic
Hand (well, kind of. it's really an ortho/plastics specialty but it exists)
Transplant (kidney, liver, pancreas)
Hepatobiliary
Pediatric surgery - competitive becasue there are VERY few spots
Surgical Oncology


When it comes right down to it, if you finish a general surgery residency and did ok on inservice exams and have good letters of rec, you can match into most any of these. Pediatrics has historically been tough only because of the limited spots. Although many say plastics is tough to match (and it is right now), a lot of that stems from the fact that many people are looking at the plastics lifestyle. There are still a lot of plastics programs out there. Laparoscopic can also be difficult simple due to the limited spots.

Another thing is that just because you can do a fellowship in something doesn't necessarily means its accredited or boarded. It does however open up many opportunities.

 

[Careofme]

If it doesnt mean that you are accredited or boarded after a fellowship then what DOES it mean.....? How do you become boarded in the sub-specialty?

 

[maxheadroom]

Some of the specialties that are still developing don't have accrediting boards yet. The fellowship isn't necessarily for the extra diploma, but for the clinical experience. A hospital is much more likely to give operating privileges for advanced procedures X, Y, and Z if they were part of your fellowship training.

 

[Ross434]

Can you still get a fellowship in say, vascular or cardiothoracic if you're coming from a little known community program residency????

 

[dr.evil]

You can pretty much get any fellowship from any program (except for maybe peds). It's definitely easier to get fellowships in regional areas due to the fellowship's familiarity with your program. As in everything, some fellowships are more competitive and some programs are more competitive/desirable. Good ABsite scores, a little research, and some great LORs will take you a long way. Fellowships are very much a "who you know" thing. So if you have attending at your program from Hopkins and you want to go to Hopkins, he/she may be able to pull some strings. Cardiothoracic and vascular fellowships are down in competitiveness right now so there are openings.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by Ross434
Can you still get a fellowship in say, vascular or cardiothoracic if you're coming from a little known community program residency????

As dr evil notes, residents from all types of programs get all types of fellowships, although admittedly some are harder than others. CT (lots of spots go unfilled) and Vascular are not considered very competitive so you should have not trouble getting a spot in one of those programs if you've done half-way decent in your Gen Surg residency.