Bringing Breadth and Depth to the Surgical Experience

The Department of Surgery encompasses the Divisions of General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Urology, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Transplant Surgery. Within the Division of General Surgery, residents gain exposure to transplantation, vascular surgery, surgical oncology, trauma, critical care, surgical nutrition, noncardiac thoracic surgery, colorectal surgery and minimally invasive surgery.

The medical center attracts a large number of patients requiring both routine and unusual tertiary care. Residents can thus develop their skills by treating patients with a wide variety of surgical needs. Einstein Medical Center surgeons perform biliary tract, upper gastrointestinal, colon, breast and endocrine surgery, as well as a great deal of major vascular surgery. The medical center has active multidisciplinary programs in breast, gastrointestinal and pulmonary carcinoma, in addition to transplantation, and trauma. A regionally renowned program in open-heart surgery treats more than 300 patients each year. The medical center’s surgeons perform more than 110 renal transplants and more than 60 liver transplants annually through the department's outstanding transplantation program. Their work includes the first successful kidney transplant in North America involving incompatible blood types. Einstein Medical Center's kidney-pancreas transplantation and liver transplant programs are highly successful. Residents gain invaluable experience treating critically ill and injured patients while working with the trauma program and on the critical care rotation. There is a two-month pediatric rotation at St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

General Surgery Residency at Einstein Medical Center

Dedicated to excellence in surgical education, Einstein Medical Center's Department of Surgery offers both a comprehensive five-year residency and preliminary programs for residents who will then pursue subspecialty training. In the five-year program, residents master the many skills they will need to pursue careers in general surgery or fellowship training. The program accepts three qualified candidates each year.

Surgical residents learn the principles of preoperative and postoperative care and surgical techniques as members of a team. They accept progressively greater responsibilities as their knowledge and abilities grow. Residents also assume an important role in educating students from Jefferson Medical College. There is protected time for conferences to guarantee a high level of resident participation. Residents complete the program with a thorough knowledge of surgical literature. Einstein Medical Center surgical residents have an outstanding success rate in passing the American Board of Surgery examinations over the last two decades. Seventy percent proceed to fellowship training following completion of the residency.

Surgery in a Tertiary Care Facility

Einstein Medical Center dedicates more than 80 beds to the surgical services, and residents benefit from facilities and equipment that represent the latest advances in modern surgery. The medical center’s surgeons perform over 10,000 procedures in the main operating room and more than 1,000 procedures in the Ambulatory Surgery and Women's Center facilities each year. Einstein Medical Center opened an outpatient surgical center in Northeast Philadelphia in fall 2001, which will further increase the number of operations we perform.

Einstein Medical Center is a fully approved Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center, the highest designation awarded by the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation. The Trauma Program, directed by the Department of Surgery, treats a large variety of cases involving both blunt and penetrating trauma. All residents earn Advanced Trauma Life Support certification. Einstein Medical Center's emergency unit, staffed by a full-time Department of Emergency Medicine, provides care for approximately 70,000 patients a year. The largest Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Pennsylvania is based here.