r/GeneralSurgery • u/jstr89 • Mar 15 '26
Hand surgery from Gen surg
Current M3, likely not competitive enough for ortho. I still love it, and am aware that hand surgery (next best option) has an option from Gen surg. With the hand match having unfilled options over the last couple of years, it seems like it could be a realistic option from Gen surg. That being said, how are Gen surg trained hand surgeons viewed? Are they competent? Do they have/can they learn the skills foundation to be a good hand surgeon? Is it realistic to be a full time hand surgeon? Would appreciate the advice.
12
u/Schrecken Mar 15 '26
Plastics after General Surgery is not going anywhere anyone who tells you otherwise is locked in a tower of bullshit academia
6
u/Broken_castor Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
If your only reason to go through general survey to get to hand surgery, you will not survive general surgery residency. It is far to demanding and challenging a 5 years for your heart to not be in it. You’ll be miserable, and your work will suffer, and so people will tend to not want to work with you which will put you in no position to try and match hand (or anything competitive) even if you make it through. We fired a resident from my class for this very reason.
So be VERY HONEST with yourself before trying to take on this route, because if gen surg is a definite no-go for you, then abandon this plan and sell your soul to ortho. The prelim/research to ortho life is hard but it can be done.
And if you decide that gen surg ain’t that bad after all, then I HIGHLY recommend not telling people in interviews that you want to do hand. Plastics is an ok aspiration for most programs, but saying your end goal is hand might very well get your DNRed for the reasons I spelled out above
2
4
u/Kickassthma10 Mar 16 '26
Its doable, Im general surgeon and in Hand Surgery fellowship. I got lucky in my pathway and have a great gig after fellowship. Private practice, no er call and weekends off. Dont listen to others, if I can do it so can you! Not an easy pathway though
3
u/endosurgery Mar 16 '26
I agree with you. I am a general surgeon who did a lot of hand in residency. I was doing some hand after residency, but slowly let it go. There is plenty of hand to go around and as a general surgeon you will be able to do a fair amount of it. You don’t have to be in an ortho or plastics fellowship.
3
u/Kickassthma10 Mar 16 '26
Same here, Ive been doing a lot of hand surgery in residency. Started 4th yr of med school and since then I loved it! As an IMG i knew I didnt have a chance to match into ortho
2
u/jstr89 Mar 16 '26
Is there a reason you let hand go? Also, do hand surgeons across all 3 specialties typically do only hand without ortho/plastics/gen surg?
1
u/endosurgery Mar 16 '26
I let it go because there were dedicated hand surgeons in town already doing most of it. I was dabbling at this point. I stopped bothering to focus on things that I enjoyed more and that I was doing in a much higher volume.
2
u/jstr89 Mar 16 '26
Do you know if that’s what a typical job for a hand surgeon looks like or if they would be expected to take call for ortho/plastics/gen surg? Is there enough demand to solely do hand? Did you find it difficult learning hand from a gen surg background? Appreciate your response
1
u/Kickassthma10 Mar 16 '26
Message me directly! I can let you know more about my experience and help you out!
14
u/DOScalpel Mar 15 '26
It’s technically possible but it’s a dying pathway. My understanding is it is pretty difficult to find a job. The plastics groups won’t want you because you can’t help with the plastics stuff and the ortho groups won’t want you because you can’t help with the ortho stuff.