IM physicians and minor surgery

[dbeast]

Hey guys, quick question- I was curious whether IM subspecialties can become trained to perform minor surgery (the example I thought of is heme/onc placing port-a-caths or doing excisional biopsies, but could be anything). I for one definitely liked how surgeries can throw some variety into a world of rounding, orders, and notes, but I certainly don't have the attention span or obsession with the OR to focus my entire career around it.

Is there a special certification process that an IM doctor can go through to do certain surgeries that are specific to their subspecialty? Apparently some family med doctors can do appendectomies, which got me thinking that much more is possible than I had first thought.

I know GI and cards have procedures, but I'm just curious if that can be extended to minor surgery. Thanks!

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[joeDO2]

Minor surgical procedures such as excisions, I&D, etc can be performed in the office setting no problem. This is especially common in primary care offices that also serve as walk in/ urgent care. However, it is unlikely you will get a hospital to credential you to do anything in the OR. Family med is a bit different because they do receive some surgical training and some programs are focused on extreme rural medicine where that is the only option. That being said, every subspecialty is going to have a few special procedures unique to them... ie nephrologists doing kidney biopsies. Again though, these are typically not performed in the OR.

 

[gutonc]

The short answer to your question is no.

 

[rox]

Remember, that a lot of IM residents, fellows and attendings do not want to do procedures.

 

[Kahreek]

if by minor surgeries you mean some procedures, yes. If you mean OR time, hmm no.

 

[Kahreek]

yeah it would be a perfect career, the state things are now, you are either a cutter spending your whole day in a windowless operating room or you spend your time filling stuff on the computer, rounding patients and ordering things.