Preliminary Surgery

[jimjones]

What's the deal with this? Is it simply for those who are going onto ENT, opth, and others that require 1 year of grad training? Do people match for these residency programs at the same time as the prelim surg, as is the case for 'transitional' years or osteopathic internships? Is it possible to do general surg in 5 years by matching into prelim surg? Thanks.

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[jimjones]

Can someone answer this?

 

[GTMD2Bee]

For the most part, pre-lim surgery spots are used for those going into other specialties (ENT, NS, ortho, radiology, etc...) or by those unsure of going into surgery or didn't match into a categorical spot. Pre-lim surgery by no means guarantees that you can finish a GS residency. Categorical positions are those that you apply to if you hope to finish a full residency. There are cases where pre-lims take categorical spots when someone in the categorical program drops out or another position is added. The match and interview process is done during the same time as that for the categorical positions.