How much traning is required to do reconstructive breast surgery procedures?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 13 May 2003 17:36 PDT

Laws vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another. In order to answer
your question, we would need to know what nation, and what state or
province, you're asking about.

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Clarification of Question by jcb84-ga on 13 May 2003 18:07 PDT

What type of training does a surgeon need to be qualified to perform
reconstructive breast surgery in the United States?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 13 May 2003 18:16 PDT

Qualified in whose opinion? In the United States, any licensed M.D.
may call himself a plastic surgeon, regardless of whether or not he or
she has specialized training in this field.

Hello JCB84, thanks for your question, 
Reconstructive Breast Surgery is on the heavy end of plastic surgery,
so references to plastic surgery can relate to this topic.

A good overview of requirements to be a qualified plastic surgeon can
be found here:
University of Iowa Plastic Surgery - What it takes to be a plastic
surgeon
http://aboutplastic.surgery.uiowa.edu/surgery/plastic/net.html

Based on the content of the above, I think the bare minimum is, after
finishing medical school, 3 years of general surgery residency
training, then 5 years each of Orthopedic and Otolaryngology, though I
assume these to be unique to the school of the above website. The
three years of specialized training in plastic surgery is the vital
part, which must include reconstructive surgery training. The last
word for accreditation is provided by the American Board of Plastic
Surgery.


Here are some additional sources for ideas:

American Board of Plastic Surgery 
http://www.abplsurg.org/

British Association of Plastic Surgeons
http://www.baps.co.uk/education/

Surgery Training Programs Plastic and Reconstructive
http://www.med.umich.edu/surg/surged/surged.plastic.html

Washington University in St. Louis - Plastic Surgery graduates.
http://www.plasticsurgery.wustl.edu/AlumniSociety/ResidentFellowsGraduates2002.asp


With regard to breast surgery, here are examples of special fellowship
and training programs for plastic and breast surgery.

Resident Training Requirements by the American Board of Plastic
Surgery
http://www.abplsurg.org/training_requirements.html

Aga Khan University - General & Breast Surgery
http://www.aku.edu/pgme/genbreastsurg.shtml

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship Program - Mayo Clinic
Scottsdale
http://www.mayo.edu/mgsm/sprs.htm

UCLA Surgery | Plastic Surgery Residency Program
http://www.surgery.medsch.ucla.edu/plastic/residencyprogram.shtml

Duke University Medical Center - Plastic Surgery Resident Training
Program
http://www.duke.edu/~klitz/training.html

History of Stanford Breast Fellowship Program
http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjeffreylab/history.html

University of Pennsylvania Health System - Plastic Surgery Residency
Specifics
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/surgery/clin/plas/specifics.html

San Francisco Matching Program - Plastic Surgery Residency Training
Requirements
http://www.sfmatch.org/r-pls/pls_requirements.html


Other info, helpful in case you're the patient: 

BreastsurgeryFYI.com - Find a qualified breast surgery doctor
http://www.breastsurgeryfyi.com/how_choose_breast_surgery_doctor.html

BreastsurgeryFYI.com - breast reconstruction surgery basics
http://www.breastsurgeryfyi.com/breast_reconstruction_surgery.html


To put it one way, the person who can do plastic surgery on the breast
had better be old. ;)

Google search terms: 
plastic surgery training
breast surgery training

I hope this has been a most helpful answer. If you have any problem
with it, do please post a Request for Clarification and I shall
respond. Thank you.

Very good contacts and a variation as well.

While pinkfreud is probably correct, a doctor not trained at least one
year beyond licenced MD would be at greatly increased risk of a
malpractice suit if he purformed reconstuctive brest surgery, unless
this is a much simpler proceedure than I think. He would also be at
risk of loosing hospital privledges at some local hospitals.  Neil

Thanks for the tip! Glad you liked the answer. :)

My wife agrees with techtor, one year beyond medical school is not
enough to stay out of trouble, Thinly populated areas have touble
attracting specalists so they tend to be less demanding. Most of the
education beyond a medical licence is (resident) aprenticship type on
the job training under the supervision of a fully accredited
instuctor, plus continuing medical education which is required of even
the most presigious doctors in Florida and I think most states and
countries.   Neil

it's not true that the typical plastic surgeon has had orthopedic or
otorhinolaryngology training, other than what's included in the
plastic surgery residency. The typical plastic surgeon does all or
part of a general surgert residency and then a plastic surgery
residency which, depending on how much additional specialization one
might pursue, would be 3 - 5 years. There are various additional
fellowships one might do, such as hand surgery, microvascular surgery,
etc. Reconstructive breast surgery is a big part of any plastic
training program. It's true in many states that anyone with a medical
license could theoretically do any sort of surgery in a private
office-based setting, legally. There have been some famous disasters
when such has been done. To practice in virtually any hospital in any
moderate size city in the US, one needs much more than a year after
med school, even to be a family practice doc. And it's rare to find
anyone with surgical priveleges nowadays who is not fully trained in a
surgical residency.