Louisiana State University School of Medicine Program

Program Identity & Fit

LSU General Surgery in New Orleans is a large academic program (11 categorical, 9 preliminary positions) built on exceptionally high operative volume, with chief residents graduating with roughly 1350 cases, placing them in the top 5-10% of case volume nationally. Training spans a genuinely heterogeneous set of sites - an urban Level 1 trauma center, a VA hospital, the state's largest community regional referral hospital, and smaller rural/suburban hospitals across New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette - giving residents graduated autonomy across socioeconomic and geographic extremes. A structured research project is required by the end of PGY-4, with optional dedicated research years, and the program produces both highly competitive subspecialty fellows (pediatric surgery, colorectal, CT, vascular, hepatobiliary, breast oncology, trauma/critical care) and graduates who move directly into community private practice comfortable with the full breadth of general surgery. The program's dual investment in robotic training (200+ cases per graduate) and multi-site rural/urban/VA exposure signals a value on operative independence and broad clinical versatility over narrow specialization.