About Us

When choosing a training program, it is very important to find one with training methods and philosophies that are compatible with your goals. Additionally, if you are interested in becoming a surgeon who has excellent surgical skills and a mastery of the principles of the specialty, try to find a program with ample opportunity to operate and a formal didactic program. LSU provides both, increasing the rigor of our program.  LSU also encourage residents to have a stake in the program.  Plastic Surgery residents are fully involved in all parts of running the program and have been very helpful in initiating and refining the integrated model.

 

Leadership

Our Interim Division Chief is Dr. Mohamad Masoumy, MD, an accomplished craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgeon. Dr. Masoumy also serves as Associate Program Director.

The Program Director is Dr. Charles Dupin, MD.  He has more than 20 years of experience in being a program director, and previously served as chief of the division for over 10 years. 

The program currently has 10 full-time faculty members, including three who have finished fellowships in craniofacial surgery and two who have CAQs in hand surgery.  Three of our faculty members have an emphasis on microsurgery and frequently perform complex microsurgical procedures.  Several of our faculty members perform gender affirmation surgeries.

Residents

Our residents are widely diverse in terms of professional interest and hobbies. There is a great deal of excitement in the program with more than half of our graduates moving on to fellowships in virtually every field of plastic surgery. 

Our residents are fortunate to serve New Orleans’ large and unique population. There is no better way to learn how to be a surgeon than by operating. Our residents are able to accomplish this through our high volume of cases.

Most of our residents starting the PGY-5 year have already surpassed the core requirements for procedures, and we have not had a resident finishing with deficiencies in operative experience.

Facilities

Facilities used for resident teaching include:

  1. University Medical Center is a new 1.9 billion dollar academic medical center with 22 operating rooms, a Level One trauma center, and a burn center.  Plastic surgery has two major clinics per week in addition to two hand clinics.  UMC has a strong oncology service and an abundance of major facial trauma. The co-director of the Plastic Surgery service is Kelly Babineaux, MD. Charles Dupin, MD, Jonathan Boraski, MD, DMD, Daniel Womac, MD, and Matthew Bartow, MD are active faculty as well.

    • UMC is a center for microsurgical reconstruction with multiple free flaps most weeks.  LSU has several faculty members at UMC who are microsurgical experts.  LSU is also primarily responsible for hand surgery at UMC and has two CAQ hand surgeons on site. LSU also holds two days of clinic and multiple OR days each week.

    • The UMC service has four full-time plastic surgery residents to support this very busy service.

    • At UMC, the residents manage patient care from consult to planning care to postoperative management.  They learn diagnosis, proper utilization of diagnostic testing, issues with scheduling, obtaining consent and recognizing and managing complications.  They round on all patients on the service and are primarily consulted by the emergency services section.  They primarily see all consults within the hospital and are fully engaged in patient care.  A similar situation occurs at other rotations, the majority of which involve one resident with one or two faculty members.

  2. Children’s Hospital New Orleans is a major children’s health care system in the Gulf South.  We have full-time residents at this site.  The hospital provides the opportunity to engage in cleft lip and palate, pediatric facial trauma, hand and lower extremity reconstruction, and major craniofacial congenital reconstruction.  Each month, there is a full-day clinic with  the craniofacial team and multiple pediatric plastic surgery clinics at the hospital.  Two fellowship-trained craniofacial surgeons work at this site. The active faculty are Jennifer Lavie, MD, Brett King, DDS, and Mohamad Masoumy, MD.

  3. Ochsner-Baptist Medical Center. This facility supports our microsurgical breast reconstruction program. It is also the primary private hospital for the LSU plastic surgery faculty.  Residents will be given progressive responsibility during this rotation to perform routine and complex microsurgery, including flap harvest, exposure and preparation of recipient vessels, and anastomotic techniques. Hugo St-Hilaire, MD is the Educational Director on site. Other active faculty include Bob Allen, MD and Daniel Womac, MD.

  4. Aesthetic Surgery. The residency training program has a dedicated resident aesthetic surgery clinic.  This clinic supports resident aesthetic surgery and is supervised by faculty who specialize in aesthetic surgery.  Residents manage and operate on these patients under faculty supervision.  The clinic is held once a week.  Kamran Khoobehi, MD is the Educational Director. Dr. Massiha is the director of the LSU Plastic Surgery Resident Clinic. Dr. Bartow assists with cases as well.

  5. West Jefferson Medical Center is a general hospital experience in Marrero, across the river from UMC.  Faculty is Jonathan Boraski, MD, DMD. Residents will also rotate at West Jefferson for Anesthesia.  This is an intense experience with a highly structured curriculum.  It allows residents to become familiar with classification of anesthetic patients, the more common agents and drugs used in anesthesia, intubation, and awareness of anesthesia complications.

  6. East Jefferson Medical Center, located in the suburb of Metairie, serves as the flagship hospital for the Tulane School of Medicine residency programs and serves as the site for the Transplant rotation. LSU faculty will also intermittently perform plastic surgery cases at EJ, which our residents are always welcome to assist with.

  7. Veteran’s Administration Medical Center is a newly constucted VA facility across the street from UMC. It has two clinics and two OR days per week, where the resident is in complete control of the service and has a one-on-one experience with program director, Charles Dupin, MD.

  8. Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center is a large faith-based hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is about 1 hour west of New Orleans, and housing is provided. Residents will work in clinics at OLOL, participate in surgery, and provide some emergency room coverage. The primary faculty at OLOL are Ruston Sanchez, MD and Michael Hanemann, MD. PRS residents also rotate at OLOL for pediatric general surgery and vascular surgery; the vascular rotation in particular is much beloved for excellent operative opportunities and fun staff.