General Surgery Residency Program

Welcome!  Thank you for your interest in our program. 

Modern general surgical residencies have undergone drastic changes over the last several years.  Mainly due to three major factors:  First, the federally mandated 80 hour work week;  the realignment of non-categorical surgical subspecialties; and finally, the justifiable focus of the residency review committee (RRC) has shifted  to ensure that resident education is the major focus of training programs, both in the operating room and with   didactic teaching sessions.

At the University of Kansas (KU), we believe that we have responded to these changes with a program that is well rounded with both an excellent clinical experience combined with a state of the art didactic teaching program.

 Our clinical experience includes a number of hospitals in addition to our primary facility, the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas.  The Residents’ experience is divided into both “team” rotations and opportunities to work alone on several of the specialty services.

Our “team” rotations include the Transplant, GI/minimally invasive, Oncologic, Trauma, and Night Float services.  The rotations that allow the resident the opportunity to work “solo” include the Cardiothoracic, Vascular, and Pediatric surgery services.

The Leavenworth Veteran’s Hospital is one of our Programs’ facilities.  At the VA, our Residents enjoy an increase in both responsibility and autonomy in patient care.  The VA provides increased experience in all areas of General Surgery with an emphasis in Vascular and Thoracic surgery.

One of the highlights of our program is the PGY-4 “circuit” year.  The 4th year of training is unique and enjoyable year in our Residents’ education.  It consists of rotations at community hospitals in three moderate sized Kansas communities providing the Resident an opportunity to participate in private practice and to train with excellent general surgeons outside of the traditional teaching hospital setting.  The PGY-4 is also the “Chief” resident on our night float service.

Over the last several years, the didactic experience at KU has been revamped.  The resident lecture series has become a weekly “event” and is designated as protected time.  All residents are excused from their clinical duties for the duration of the conference.  Grand Rounds is also a weekly series consisting of visiting professor lectures, faculty lectures, and journal club once a month.  These changes were followed by a significant increase in our residents’ ABSITE scores.

I believe that we have re-crafted our program with a staff that is committed to teaching and training our residents with an emphasis on learning, not on service to the hospital.  We pride ourselves in selecting residents who work well together and are excited about learning.  Residents who seek fellowships after graduation are excellent candidates and to date have had no difficulty in selection and placement in their program(s) of choice.

Please read and enjoy our Program’s history below:

The History of the University of Kansas General Surgery Residency Program

The first surgery resident at the University of Kansas, Dr. Mervin Rumold, was appointed in 1931 for three years by Thomas Orr, M.D., who had been named the first full-time Chair of Surgery in 1929.  Dr. Orr was one of the founders of the American Board of Surgery, the President of the American Surgical Association and the Southwest Surgical Congress.  Dr. Orr authored over 200 hundred manuscripts, several surgical texts and operative manuals including Operations of General Surgery, published in 1944, a standard text book for medical students.  He was an accomplished clinical surgeon and performed a pancreatoduodenectomy soon after Whipple.  Dr. Orr was the Chair from 1929 until 1948 during which time 27 residents were trained including Drs. David Robinson and Frederick Kittle.  Dr. Robinson became a nationally renowned Plastic Surgeon.  Dr. Kittle subsequently performed the first open heart procedure at KU in addition to being a Markle Scholar and President of the University Surgeons.
From 1949 to 2006, six surgeons have served as the Chair of Surgery at the University of Kansas: Paul Schafer, Frank Allbritten, Loren Humphrey, Frank Masters, Lawrence Cheung and James Thomas.  Prominent faculty members of the department since the beginning of the general surgery residency, in addition to the above mentioned surgeons, have included Stan Friesen, Creighton Hardin, Paul Schloerb, William Reed, Norman McSwain, Arlo Hermreck, George Pierce, William Jewell, Alan Thal, Lucien Leape, Thomas Holder, Romano Delcore and Norman Estes.  During this time, the residency program expanded to 4 and then to 5 residents per year.  Rotations at the VA Hospitals in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Leavenworth, Kansas, were added to the program in 1949 and 1984 respectively.  Three rotations at community hospitals (Topeka, Shawnee Mission and Garden City) began in 1973.  The number of residents was decreased to four in 2001.  The KCMOVAH rotations were discontinued in 2003.
These aforementioned faculty members and those who are currently active in the department have been responsible for training excellent clinical surgeons.  Several residents most notably William Reed, Arlo Hermreck, Norman Estes, Romano Delcore, Carol Connor, Chris Haller, Terry Wade, Jay Stauffer, Brian McCroskey, Kirk Hance, Mike Zdon and Ed Childs have followed in the footsteps of Drs. Kittle and Hardin and became accomplished academic surgeons.  A number of milestones have occurred over the years in which many of the 278 residents, that completed their training, participated including:

• the development of the Padgett dermatome,
• the first intraoperative application of television for surgical education,
• the first repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm,
• the development and institution of refresher courses for continued education,
• the clinical application of the Morch volume constant ventilator.

In addition to exposure to these activities, as in most university programs, a number of training opportunities have been available to the residents for several years including renal, hepatic and pancreatic transplantation, minimally invasive and robotic surgery and exposure to faculty with special interests and expertise in pediatric, pancreatic, breast, gastrointestinal, bariatric, endocrine, vascular and cardiothoracic surgery.  The burn, trauma and cancer centers have been critically important in resident education since their addition to the institution.

The general surgery residency and the Department of Surgery at the University of Kansas continues to evolve.  It is expected that additional faculty will be added in this academic year providing an opportunity for resident exposure to new surgical concepts, techniques and bench research.  In addition the faculty and the residency program are uniquely positioned to participate in the training of both minorities and women.    

James H. Thomas, MD, RVT, FACS
April 24, 2006