Clinical Expertise

Working in the only Level 1 Trauma Center and the first pediatric trauma center in Orange County (serving a population of more than 3.2 million people), our faculty members care for all trauma patients who present to UCI Health. Our surgeons manage primary injuries and also coordinate care from surgical subspecialties. We diagnose and treat a wide range of injuries, including those to the brain, neck, chest, abdomen and extremities, employing focused abdominal sonography for trauma and using minimally invasive and robotic techniques to perform exploratory laparotomies and thoracotomies. In addition, we undertake cutting-edge procedures such as intrathoracic surgical stabilization of rib fractures and multidisciplinary thoracic endovascular aortic repair for thoracic aortic injuries. We are experienced in dealing with injuries from many different causes, including road traffic accidents, all-terrain vehicle crashes, falls, assaults, impalements, and gunshot and stab wounds. 

At UCI School of Medicine, our team deals with burns and associated conditions from a variety of causes, such as thermal and chemical burns, complex wounds, frostbite and inhalation injuries. For these patients, we perform skin excisions and grafting and provide complex wound care at the only American Burn Association-verified burn center in Orange County. We are responsible for the comprehensive management of all burn patients in the emergency department, the burn intensive care unit and the burn outpatient clinic.

We have a 24-bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit, where faculty members in our division provide consultation and critical care management for postoperative patients and those with sepsis, respiratory failure, multi-organ failure and coagulopathy. We perform a wide spectrum of surgical critical care procedures, including open and percutaneous tracheostomies, tube thoracostomies, ventilator management, temporary vascular access (central venous lines, dialysis lines, arterial lines, Swan-Ganz catheters), bronchoscopies and placement of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes.

Our team performs many innovative procedures, including direct peritoneal and whole blood resuscitation, rotational thromboelastometry, resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Our division surgeons perform a range of procedures for patients with acute conditions requiring emergency surgery, such as appendicitis, complicated diverticulitis, cholecystitis, bowel perforations and obstructions, perforated ulcers, incarcerated hernias, abdominal abscesses and necrotizing soft tissue infections. We are experienced in the use of robotic or laparoscopic techniques for cholecystectomies, inguinal hernia repairs, ventral repairs and appendectomies. In addition, we undertake open hernia repairs, small or large bowel resections with or without ostomy creation and debridement of necrotizing soft tissue infections.

Through our outpatient clinic, our team also manages general surgery ailments, with an emphasis on biliary disease and hernias. We provide elective surgical procedures to treat hernias — including inguinal, ventral, incisional, spigelian, traumatic and lumbar hernias — pilonidal cysts or sinuses, symptomatic cholelithiasis and gallbladder polyps. Where possible, we use robotic or laparoscopic techniques for hernia repairs and cholecystectomies. Other elective procedures our faculty members undertake include abdominal wall reconstruction, excisions of pilonidal cysts and sinuses (with flap reconstruction if needed), percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomies and laparoscopic-assisted gastrostomies.