Rotation Sites
Comprehensive Training
During your seven-year plastic surgery training with Stanford, residents will also work in a group of affiliated hospitals in all around the bay area. Each affiliate hospital has its own complete Plastic Surgery division, including staff and full-time faculty members. These hospitals, in addition to Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children Hospital, are the Veterans Administration Health Care System, the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Santa Clara Kaiser Hospital, Davies Medical Center as well as a Gender Affirmation Rotation. Our residents rotate through all of these hospitals during the General Surgery and Plastic Surgery training.
Stanford Health Care
A brand new hospital opened in 2019, patients are referred to Stanford Hospital and Clinics from all around the San Francisco Bay Area, but also come from as far as Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Southern California. At Stanford, patients are also occasionally seen internationally from Asia and Europe. The Stanford medical campus has both a Comprehensive Cancer Center, Women’s Cancer Center, and is a Level I Trauma Hospital. This provides for exposure to a broad range of reconstructive challenges. Residents are exposed to every area of microsurgery and complex reconstruction including breast reconstruction, head & neck, extremity, abdominal wall reconstruction, pelvic and perineal reconstruction, hand, replantation, peripheral nerve, etc. Stanford performs a large volume of flaps, including D.I.E.P., S.I.E.A., S.G.A.P., T.R.A.M., A.L.T., fibula, parascapular, radial forearm, etc. Residents are also exposed to a large volume of non-microsurgical reconstructions.
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
A brand new dedicated children’s hospital opened in 2017, Stanford Children's Health receives referrals from all over the Western United States. The plastic surgery service performs comprehensive pediatric care including repair of cleft lip, cleft palate, craniosynostosis, craniofacial congenital abnormalities, congenital nevi, and vascular malformation.
Palo Alto Veteran's Administration Health Care System
VA Hospital Palo Alto is located 3.5 miles from Stanford Hospital. It serves a large population of America’s veterans, and provides comprehensive patient care. Residents in plastic surgery are exposed to management of skin cancers, melanoma, wounds, hand problems, and chronic illnesses. Various reconstructive procedures are performed, including grafting, nasal reconstruction, pedicled and free flaps, local flaps of the face, etc.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
A tertiary medical center, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center is one of four adult level one trauma centers and one of three pediatric level one trauma centers in Northern California (in addition to Stanford Hospital). It operates the only federally designated spinal cord injury center in Northern California, along with the only traumatic brain injury center for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients. It operates one of four burn centers in Northern California. It is the only trauma center in California to co-locate all five of these services on one campus. Residents receive a large experience in trauma management, ICU, burn management (both acute as well as burn reconstruction), hand surgery, maxillofacial trauma, general reconstruction, and more.
Kaiser Santa Clara Hospital
A referral center for plastic surgery within the Kaiser Healthcare System in the Northern California area. Residents are exposed to a broad range of plastic surgical problems from the straightforward to the complex. This includes exposure to craniofacial surgery, breast surgery (reconstruction, reduction, lift), microsurgery, breast reconstruction, head & neck surgery, chest wall reconstruction, abdominal wall reconstruction, hand surgery, and more.
The Buncke Clinic
The Buncke Clinic was the home to one of the founding fathers and pioneers in microsurgery, Harry J. Buncke. Today, it is a world-class microsurgical center that provides comprehensive, complex reconstruction throughout the entire body, with particular prominence for ground-breaking work in the hand and upper extremity.
California Pacific Medical Center
California Pacific Medical Center is one of the largest private, not-for-profit, academic medical centers in California and is a Sutter Health affiliate. As a tertiary referral center, the Medical Center provides a wide variety of services, including acute, post-acute and outpatient hospital care; home care and hospice services; preventive and complementary care and health education.
Gender Rotation
Our plastic surgery residents have the unique opportunity to participate in a Gender Affirmation Surgery rotation, where they gain hands-on experience in performing life-changing procedures for transgender patients. This rotation provides residents with in-depth training in gender-affirming surgeries.