How commonly do general surgeons do fellowships like colorectal, peds, CT, plastics?

[RockClimberMed]

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I've learned that some of the surgeons at my medical school were originally general surgeons before they completed fellowships in their current field (CT, Plastics...). Is it as competitive to match into a CT fellowship after a 5 year GS residency as it is to match into an integrated CT residency?

 

[JulienMarshall]

Applicants coming from a General Surgery residency have already completed a significant portion of their surgical training, which may be viewed favorably by CT fellowship programs. They have likely gained valuable experience in various aspects of surgery, including critical care, trauma, and general surgical procedures, which can be beneficial in CT surgery.

 

[pazzer2]

Many, but not all, of the surgical subspecialties require completion of a General Surgery residency: Cardiothoracic, colorectal, breast, critical care, hand, pediatric, plastic, transplant, vascular, oncology, etc. Some of these have combined programs that you can match into right out of medical school.

The most competitive of these fellowships is pediatric. Some of the others are not as competitive (critical care).

 

[LucidSplash]

Vascular, cardiothoracic, and plastics all have integrated (direct) residencies, allowing you to “skip” general surgery residency. These are extremely competitive. You can also do general surgery residency and then pursue fellowship training for these specialties. The fellowships have varying degrees of competitiveness but the integrated programs are more competitive across the board for these 3 specialties.

The others all require general surgery residency first. Relatively few general surgeons are doing hand fellowships as those are mostly done by orthopedic and plastics-trained surgeons. Peds is definitely the most competitive.