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Acute Care Surgery Services

Life-threatening or severe problems that require surgery can happen at any time. When the unexpected occurs, you want to know you can count on swift treatment by skilled and compassionate healthcare providers.

Thousands of critically ill patients come to UC Irvine Medical Center seeking our expert treatment each year. Because we are Orange County’s only verified Level I trauma center, our acute care surgical team is available around the clock, seven days a week, to swiftly examine and treat patients with the full spectrum of illnesses and other problems.

If further care and consultation are needed, our board-certified surgeons have access to a team of experienced on-site specialists.

After surgery, our acute care team supervises patients in our state-of-the-science intensive care units (ICUs), which include a surgical ICU, a pediatric ICU, a neurosurgical ICU and a burn ICU. All are equipped with the most advanced monitoring equipment to ensure that each of our patients receives the best possible care.

At UC Irvine Medical Center, our team provides the best operative and post-operative care available for patients with a wide range of surgical problems and critical illnesses, including:
  • Abdominal pain
  • Gall bladder inflammation
  • Intra-abdominal infections
  • Major soft tissue infections
  • Pancreatitis
  • Sepsis

After undergoing surgery, patients may be transferred to one of our specialized intensive care units (ICU) at the medical center’s UC Irvine Douglas Hospital. There, they continue to receive medical attention from members of the acute care surgery team and other specialists as needed.

Our intensive care units (ICUs) include:
  • Surgical ICU
  • Neurosurgical ICU
  • Pediatric ICU
  • Burn ICU

Learn more about our acute care services ›

  • Our Acute Care surgical team is part of Orange County’s only verified Level I trauma center, a designation by the American College of Surgeons that means we are equipped to provide the highest level of surgical care with a full range of specialists and life-saving technology 24 hours a day.
  • Our state-of-the-science intensive care units (ICU) are designed to meet the specific needs of surgery, burn, neurology and neurosurgery patients.
  • UCI Health is home to the UC Irvine Regional Burn Center, one of the first such centers in the nation.
  • UC Irvine Medical Center, one of the first facilities in the nation to be certified as a primary stroke center, is equipped to provide emergency stroke and cerebrovascular care.
  • As a university medical center, we are involved in advancing the field of acute care medicine, including clinical studies to improve treatment of life-threatening conditions, including shock. This gives UCI Health patients the benefit of new technologies and protocols not yet available to the general public.

Our acute care team is led by Dr. Michael Lekawa, director of UCI Health Trauma Services and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

All of our acute care surgeons are board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care.

Our surgeons include:

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