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surgery services

Surgery Services

When you need an operation, you want to know that you are in the most capable, compassionate hands around.

Our UCI Health surgical specialists are the most experienced and highly trained in Orange County and beyond. Whether they perform procedures on the eye, brain, spine, heart, ear, stomach, pancreas, ovaries, skin or prostate, all are board-certified experts who are leaders in their respective specialties.

More than 50 of our surgeons have been named Best Doctors in America® by their peers, a distinction reserved for the top 5% of U.S. doctors. Their expertise is among the reasons that UCI Medical Center is regularly recognized as one of the nation’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. The medical center is also the only American College of Surgeons-certified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center in Orange County.

Each UCI Health surgical specialist is part of a highly skilled multidisciplinary team that delivers comprehensive care to meet your individual needs.

We are equipped to deal with every situation requiring surgery—from accidents, traumatic injuries and acute conditions needing immediate attention to cancer, organ transplantation, weight-loss surgery and breast-saving reconstructive surgery.

When you are treated by a UCI Health surgical specialist, you receive expert care from our entire staff of healthcare professionals. Simply put, when you see one of us, you see all of us.

In addition to surgeons, every UCI Health team includes highly trained medical specialists, nurses, psychologists, rehabilitation therapists and social workers, depending on each patient’s needs.

We believe you deserve the best possible treatment, which is achieved only when our medical professionals work together.

Healthcare leaders

As the only academic medical system in Orange County, UCI Medical Center provides many advanced surgical services that are are not available elsewhere in the region.

Our medical center includes Orange County’s only:

  • Level I trauma center, verified by the American College of Surgeons
  • Level II pediatric trauma center, verified by the American College of Surgeons
  • Burn treatment center, verified by the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association
  • National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center

Our pediatric neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is one of the most sophisticated in Orange County, and it is an important complement to our high-risk maternal-fetal program.

UCI Medical Center was one of the first in the nation to be certified as a primary stroke center by The Joint Commission, signifying that it meets the highest standards for rapid, expert stroke care. 

Many of our surgeons are members of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, whose National Cancer Institute designation recognizes that it meets the highest standards of care, research and community outreach.

Our patients also benefit because our surgeons have access to the most technologically advanced surgical suites at the medical center’s UCI Douglas Hospital. These include state-of-the-art endovascular hybrid suites and intraoperative computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Most of our UCI Health surgeons are leading the way in discovering, developing and refining the least invasive procedures possible. As a result, our patients experience less pain, a lower risk of infection and faster recovery.

They are skilled at operating through tiny keyhole incisions (laparoscopically) and with needles introduced through the skin to destroy tissue with either heat or extreme cold. Their goal: to provide you with the best possible care that speeds your return to good health.

Many of these same surgeons also are pioneers in the use of robotic surgical systems, which allow them greater dexterity, precision and range of view than do laparoscopic or traditional open approaches.

Our surgical specialists are perfecting the use of robotic and other technologies to improve care for a variety of conditions:

  • A UCI Health surgeon performed the West Coast’s first robot-assisted thyroid surgery, which eliminates the tell-tale neck scar.
  • Our eye surgeons are among the first to implant a miniature telescope in the eyes of patients with end-stage macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older adults.
  • A UCI Health colorectal surgeon performed and reported the world's first robot-assisted rectal cancer resection.
  • Our Ablative Oncology Center is the nation's first multidisciplinary university ablative oncology center, offering the least invasive therapies available for some cancers.
  • UCI Medical Center is the only academic medical center in Orange County — and one of only a handful of hospitals in Southern California — to offer HIPEC, or hyperthermic intraoperative peritoneal chemotherapy, along with surgery for late-state or recurrent colorectal, gastric, ovarian and other cancers originating in the abdominal area.

Our surgical specialists, like all of our UCI Health physicians, are at the forefront of medical advances to ensure that you receive world-class care.

Learn more about our minimally invasive surgery services ›

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