Hand surgery???

[HEME-ONC]

Can anyone tell me a little about Hand surgery? What is the career path? Is there a fellowship? How competetive is it? What is the lifestyle and pay like? Where could I find out about some of the top programs? What type of institution would I want to do my surgical residency in if I'm wanting to pursue becoming a hand surgeon?
Thanks

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[Skylizard]

Originally posted by HEME-ONC
Can anyone tell me a little about Hand surgery? What is the career path? Is there a fellowship? How competetive is it?...

Per the path, my experience is that you can go into hand through plastics or ortho. I don't know if you can get there another way. There are fellowships. I do not know how competitive it is though this will also depend on if you take ortho or plastics to get there too.

 

[Winged Scapula]

As Skylizard notes the typical trend is to follow either an Ortho or Plastics residency with a hand fellowship. There are programs that will take apps from those finishing a Gen Surg residency but the two former groups tend to be more successful in obtaining fellowships.

The lifestyle depends on your environment - you will likely take some "hand call" at a local hospital/trauma center and that can be very busy - especially in the spring/summer as boneheads start firing up their lawn mowers, BBQs, and in the fall/winter as they decide to try out their new chainsaw. Many surgeons are turning away from the field because of the rather relatively poor reimbursement and the high liability compared to other surgical pursuits, so the fellowships are not as competitive as they used to be.

 

[HEME-ONC]

It seems that you know a lot of what is out there in regards to surgery. Can you tell me some of the more interesting fields that are opening up? I have heard that many of the invasive procedures are starting to be done away with. Is this true?