Residency Program Overview

Extracurricular Activities

The University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita Orthopaedic Residency Program is fully accredited and has been in continuous operation for over forty-five years. Resident training takes place at Via Christi Regional Medical Center (St. Francis and St. Joseph Campuses), Wesley Medical Center, Wichita Veterans Administration Medical Center and Shiners Hospital of St. Louis.

Orthopaedic surgery is one of the busiest residency programs under the auspices of WCGME (the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education) with an average daily census in the Wichita hospitals of 90 patients. The growing trend toward one-day surgery is reflected in the number of patients admitted to the one day surgery units, approximately 4,000 per year. Nearly 14,000 surgical procedures were performed during 2008. Residents staff clinics at the three Wichita facilities where 7,000 patients are seen yearly. Orthopaedic emergency room coverage is provided 24 hours per day with back up from chief residents and attending staff.

Residency Program

Wichita, as the largest city in the state of Kansas, is a major referral center for the entire state as well as portions of adjoining states. The Orthopaedic Trauma Service provides comprehensive 24 hour per day service to patients with multiple system injuries and modern surgical techniques including closed intramedullary fixation, rigid internal fixation, external fixation and combinations thereof are liberally employed.

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Orthopaedic Surgery is one of the busiest residency programs under the auspices of WCGME with an annual operative experience of over 5,000 cases.

Residents rotate through an Adult Reconstructive Service both at Wesley and St. Francis where over 2,000 hip and knee arthroplasties are done each year. Other techniques such as osteotomies, synovectomies and revision arthroplasties are done as well as many adult spinal procedures.

A Sports Medicine Service is part of the program which affords experience in knee and shoulder arthroscopy as well as meniscal repair and reconstructive ligament procedures. Exposure to high school, college, and professional athletes is available on the rotation.

Several attending physicians staff the Hand Surgery Service where a wide variety of traumatic, acquired and congenital disorders of the hand and upper extremity are treated.

Spending six months at the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis and three months on the pediatric orthopaedic service, the resident has experience in all phases of musculoskeletal diseases of children.

A second-year resident and a senior resident rotate to the Wichita Veterans Administration Medical Center in quarterly blocks which provide a wide experience in adult reconstructive surgery with some adult trauma.

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25th Annual Charles Rombold Visiting Professorship 2008

Fifth-year residents serve as Chief Orthopaedic Resident at St. Francis for three months and for three months at Wesley. During this time the resident is given significant responsibility for evaluating and treating a variety of orthopaedic problems as he/she begin to make the transition from resident to independent practitioner or Fellow. The Chief Resident also serves as a manager for the orthopaedic clinics in the respective hospital and as a consultant to the younger residents.

Clinical research programs are being conducted by various staff physicians on all of the above services and residents are encouraged to participate. Each resident must prepare a case report suitable for publication and must complete a substantial clinical or laboratory research project suitable for publication. Residents are encouraged to present their work at national, regional and local meetings. Terri Jones, Research Coordinator assists residents and faculty in initiating data collection, literature searches and reporting of research activities.

Laboratory research opportunities for residents exists in conjunction with the staff and facilities of the Orthopaedic Research Institute which was established in 1987. Emphasis in ORI has been on orthopaedic metallurgy, total joint design, patellar and cruciate ligament stress analysis and external fixator design and testing.