Head & Neck Surgery and Microvascular Reconstruction Fellowship

Fellowship training in this program is under Drs. D. David Kim, Fawaz Alotaibi and Yousef Alshamrani, all of whom are well-respected and accomplished fellowship-trained head and neck surgeons with expertise in all aspects of head and neck surgery and microvascular reconstruction. Training is conducted at both the Academic Medical Center at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport and St. Mary's Medical Center. The Academic Medical Center is a tertiary hospital with approximately 430 beds. The patient accruement area includes all of northwest Louisiana, southwest Arkansas and east Texas. Approximately 700 head and neck oncology patient visits are recorded each year. All patients are presented prospectively and retrospectively at the multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Tumor Board to obtain a consensus opinion on treatment.

On completion of their fellowship training, the fellows will have developed a comprehensive understanding of the diagnosis and management of patients with malignant and benign lesions involving the head and neck region. Another focus of the program is in the understanding of the various appropriate methods of reconstruction and rehabilitation used in the management of these patients that include local and regional flaps as well as distant microvascular free tissue transfer. Additionally, the department is the sole provider of soft-tissue coverage for the Orthopedic Surgery department as well as occasional soft-tissue coverage for Trauma Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Neurosurgery/Spine Surgery. The fellows are expected to participate in all aspects of these multi-disciplinary flap cases. In order to fulfill all of these goals, fellowship training is clinically focused. Fellows are expected to be involved not only in the surgical treatment of these patients but also in their daily and long-term management.