Residency: Services

General Surgery

Residents are assigned to general surgical services at all levels of training.  These services have primary responsibility for teaching the basic principles of surgical care to both residents and students.  There is broad exposure to the disciplines of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary surgeries, endocrine surgery, surgical oncology, bariatric surgery, laparoscopic surgery, and endoscopic procedures. Residents participate in the preoperative and postoperative care of all surgical patients. Extensive experience with all types of surgical emergencies is gained at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), the Baltimore Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, and Mercy Medical Center. Residents participate in multidisciplinary conferences in breast, endocrine and gastrointestinal malignancies. 

Techniques for laparoscopic surgery have been pioneered within the Department of Surgery -- recently ranked 9th of all U.S. medical schools in the latest NIH funding-by-department ranking -- and UMMC’s Minimally Invasive Therapy Center. The faculty is skilled in advanced laparoscopic procedures, and residents gain excellent training in a broad range of laparoscopic abdominal procedures, including cholecystectomy, common bile duct exploration, Nissen fundoplication, splenectomy, adrenalectomy, appendectomy, intestinal resection, staging of malignancies and donor nephrectomy for kidney transplantation.

Coupled with this minimally invasive surgery (MIS) training is a program in surgical endoscopy that includes the full range of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures and allows our surgical trainees to gain experience and skills in this important component of gastrointestinal surgery.

 Trauma Surgery

Residents have strong exposure to the evaluation and treatment of trauma victims. The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center - a constituent of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) - receives over 8000 major trauma admissions yearly from a region comprised primarily of Maryland and parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. During their first, second and fourth clinical years, residents participate on one of the Shock Trauma admitting services, an experience that stresses complex problem management. The attending staff is very active clinically, providing close supervision and intensive teaching. There are excellent teaching conferences and special workshops on techniques of trauma management.

Surgical Critial Care

The SICU admits a variety of general surgery patients, thus providing the second year resident with broad experience in the care of the critically ill. Residents, supervised by fellows and attendings, have responsibility for patient care in the unit and participate in all invasive and diagnostic procedures.

Pediatric Surgery

Surgical residents rotate on this service during the first, second, and fourth clinical years. This training program operates in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Hospital Division of Pediatric Surgery. Patients are referred from a broad range of specialty areas. The Division is charged with the comprehensive care of surgical maladies in children from birth through maturation (18 years of age). At UMMS, the children are managed in psychophysiologic groups: premature and term neonates, children under two years of age, children two to twelve years of age, and teenagers. UMMS supports a neonatal intensive care unit and a pediatric intensive care unit.

Cardiothoracic Surgery (Division of Cardiac Surgery and Division of Thoracic Surgery)

Residents are assigned to this service during the first, second, and third clinical years to gain better understanding of the principles involved in general thoracic and cardiac surgery and critical care. UMMC's Cardiothoracic Transplant Program is unique in the region, and its Maryland Heart Center is actively involved in major procedures, including transplants, valve and structural cardiac surgery, and ventricular assist device placement as well as in pediatric cardiac surgery. Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms is performed routinely at the Maryland Vascular Center. The faculty of theThoracic Surgery Division also staff the Thoracic Oncology Program of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, where they use a new technique called thoracoscopic surgical staging, and other innovative surgical procedures to evaluate and treat cancers of the lung and esophagus. Ours is among the first U.S. programs to use video-assisted thoracoscopy, which allows surgeons to complete procedures through small incisions, usually made between the ribs, and our faculty have been instrumental in teaching this technique regionally, nationally, and internationally.

A variety of conferences in basic and clinical science are presented in cooperation with the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics and the Divisions of Pulmonary Disease, Cardiology and Gastroenterology. An active research program in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery enhances the clinical activities.

Vascular Surgery

The vascular surgery service performs approximately 500 operations annually and supports a non-invasive vascular laboratory dedicated to the study and evaluation of vascular disease. This laboratory conducts studies on over 2000 patients per year and contributes to the Department's vascular research effort. Surgical residents are provided with exposure to vascular disease during the first, second and fifth clinical years.  

Transplantaion Surgery

During this service, residents participate in one of the nation's premiere transplant surgery programs. The University of Maryland Transplant Service is a national leader in the number of pancreas (as well as liver) transplantations and a regional leader in renal transplantations. In addition, residents have exposure to robot liver transplantation. A recent 1,000th laparoscopic kidney removal from a living donor earned UMMC designation as the U.S. hospital that has performed that procedure the most.

Residents rotate in transplantation surgery during the first, third and fourth years. They participate directly in organ transplantation, as well as in the procurement and harvesting of organs through the Transplant Resource Center of Maryland. In their daily management of these complex, challenging patients, residents gain experience in the preoperative management of end-stage renal and liver disease and post-transplant management of all aspects of care, including immunosuppression. Residents also are exposed to laparoscopic donor nephrectomies. The Transplant Service also offers an excellent experience in vascular access surgery for trainees. The Division of Transplantation offers a number of didactic programs, including a monthly research symposium and a weekly conference on clinical issues specific to transplantation, medicine, surgery and biology.

Printer friendly    Email this page