Orthopedic Surgery
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This fully approved, accredited, five-year program accepts two residents per year with instruction and guidance provided by a six-member faculty. Rotations are structured to provide graduated responsibility at each level of the educational experience. In recent years, many of our graduating residents have gone on to sub-specialty fellowships and have continued their education in well-respected fellowships throughout our country, in multiple disciplines, including the R. Adams Crawley Shock Trauma Center, in Maryland; the Kerlan-Jobe clinic, Los Angeles, California; Spine Fellowship at the University of Virginia; Sports Medicine at Miami Sports Medicine Fellowship: Hand Surgery with Dr. David Green in San Antonio, Texas, and Foot and Ankle with Dr. John Gould in Birmingham, Alabama. Additionally, several of our residents have started orthopaedic practice immediately after residency.
A dedicated six-member, full-time teaching faculty, as well as a supportive group of orthopaedic surgeons in the community contribute to our residents' education on a regular basis. Each year the residents take the OITE (Orthopaedic In-Training Examination) given by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. All recent graduates of the program have passed their board certification examinations on their first attempt.
Each resident attends the AO North American Basic Principles and Techniques of Operative Fracture Management course during their PGY2 year, Arthroscopy Course during their PGY3 year, Musculoskeletal Pathology Course during their PGY4 year and the AAOS annual meeting as a chief resident. Supports for resident attendance at other regional and national conferences are also available.
The orthopaedic surgery resident is expected to assist in the ongoing education of medical students, family medicine residents, sports medicine fellows, and other affiliated healthcare professionals.
General ambulatory orthopaedic care, pre-operative evaluations and post-operative follow-ups are done in " in-house" orthopaedic clinics. Approximately 5,000 annual patient visits occur in these clinics. In addition, sub-specialty experience is obtained in the clinics of selected private orthopaedists who hold university appointments as clinical faculty. The resident spends approximately 1 to 1-1/2 days per week in the general orthopaedic clinics and one day in a subspecialty clinic. The remainder of a resident's time is spent in the operating room. A significant benefit for our residents is obtained from operating with local community-based subspecialty orthopaedists (pediatrics,foot/ankle, and spine), thereby complementing the education our university-based attendings provide. The residents' pediatric orthopaedic education is supplemented by an excellent four-month rotation during the PGY 4 year at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Greenville. This is in addition to the valuable two-month pediatric orthopaedics/pediatric trauma rotation at Palmetto Health Richland. During the PGY3 year each resident spends three months on a spine rotation with the orthopaedic spine service at The Palmetto Health Baptist campus in Columbia.