Dr Amber Leis

It’s Thank A Resident day! One of the best parts of my job is getting to teach trainees about plastic surgery, and pediatric hand and brachial plexus injuries. In return, these young doctors help me tremendously by seeing patients in the ER and in clinic, even in Covid times when they have literally been on the front lines. They help me manage the incredible amount of paperwork that it takes to look after patients, and without them I wouldn’t be able to do half as much as I do. I operate with them every day and their enthusiasm for learning always lifts me up. PC @dr.nataliebarton #thankaresidentday #plasticsurgeryresidency #gratitude #ilovemyjob #programdirector #plasticsurgeryprogramdirector

Not every eyelid surgery is cosmetic! This kind man had lost the ability to open his eyes because the little muscles in his eyelid no longer worked. There is obviously some extra skin I needed to remove, but that alone wouldn’t fix his weak eyelid muscles. In order to correct his problem, I took part of his thigh (the tensor fascia lata) and cut it into thin strips of very strong tissue that I attached to his eyelid cartilage (remember flipping your eyelids inside out as a k...id? That’s the cartilage!) and then tunneled them under his skin to attach them to his forehead muscles. Think of it like suspenders. Now when he wants to open his eyes wider, he raises his brows! This procedure is called a frontalis sling. He is shown here three years after surgery. #blepharoplasty #ptosis #eyelidptosis #frontalisslingsurgery #frontalissling #functionaleyelidsurgery #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon See more

Fixing tendon injuries is actually really fun. It’s soothing to be able to put all the broken pieces back together again, and there is a lot that we hand surgeons have learned over the past several decades about how to get patients the best results. I enjoy teaching my residents this too! I hope @rosssayadi found it as enjoyable as I did #handsurgery #teaching #lifetimelearning #handtherapy #activeprotocol #flexortendonrepair #flexortendoninjury #flexortendonlaceration

Hanging with my favorite #bossbabe @drcathytang for hand fellowship interviews. We wrapped up the last session today. It’s been a long season of zoom, but it’s also been awesome to meet so many incredible applicants from around the country. The future is bright. #handsurgery #handfellowship #zoominterviews #workfam

One of the simplest ways to make a tight scar longer is to cut it into a Z and swap the two little triangles that are made by this cut. This technique is, appropriately, called a z plasty. You can swipe left to see a labeled picture clarifying how the little triangles move. I’ve used a z plasty here to help a young boy who had a burn several years ago. It is really common to see burn scars in the hand get tight and make it hard to use the hand or fingers. As simple as it seem...s, when I was in training I realized that deciding where to draw the z was actually the trick to the operation and sometimes more challenging than you might guess! For students and young surgeons here is my tip for you: where the scar is tight and short, make that the center axis incision. Now you have only to decide which direction to orient the limbs. Think about the blood supply to the little triangles and the anatomy of the area you are working in, and you’ll be able to find the right solution. #tipstrickspearls #zplasty #burnscar #webspacecontracture #pediatrichandsurgery #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon See more

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that can devastate the joints in the body. It’s not as common in hand surgery practices as it was a few decades ago, thanks to better medicines to treat it. Occasionally though I still will see a patient with severe joint damage. This patient had unfortunately been unable to take the medication and her hands have suffered. Although the treatments I can offer her will never fully correct her joints, they can take away her pain and improve her motion. I used silicone joint replacements in her knuckles for this procedure, and you can swipe left for some more views (nothing graphic today, sorry folks!) #rheumatoidarthritis #swansonarthroplastyset #siliconejoint #knuckles #dmrds #ra #handsurgery

Do you have people in your life that you just couldn’t live without? My amazing residency coordinator is like that for me. I would be lost without her. We just finished a full day of interviews for our residency, and things went so smoothly! No one went to the bathroom with their mic on or anything . She spent so much time preparing to make this day perfect. Truly though this day was a testament to the great teamwork that goes on here. It’s a long process reading 300+ applic...ations and then interviewing just 30 candidates for our 3 spots. It’s also an honor to be part of someone else’s path to their dream. I am so thankful for @dr.brock.lanier and @drcathytang who helped me take on this task with the care it deserves. Congratulations are in order for all the applicants too. This past year has been hard for medical students trying to learn about their career options during a pandemic. In spite of the obstacles, these great humans continued to do research and volunteer and worked to make the world a better place. We are super excited to find out who we will match! #workfamily #residencyinterviews See more

Dose TWO is in the books! My gratitude is immeasurable. I’ve been posting in my stories about the huge increase in trauma surgeries I’ve been doing recently where the patient is diagnosed with Covid in the ER. And I also shared about how I found out yesterday that one of my favorite scrub nurses had recently died of Covid. He was a really kind man, and his death has really stung. He worked one of the later shifts, and so I often saw him while I was taking care of after hours... emergency cases. He had a good heart. I regret terribly not telling him how much I enjoyed working with him, or how his kindness to me and enthusiasm for the cases we did always brightened my late nights and long days. I accept my vaccination today in honor of him, and my grandfather who died of Covid over the summer. It’s time to stamp this disease out. #notthrowingawaymyshot #thisisourshot #covidvacccine #gratitudeandgrief #stompoutcovid19 See more

Reattaching fingers, especially in children, requires repairing very small blood vessels. This young boy put his hand in a blender and was brought to @chocchildrens (my favorite place) for care. I’m so glad that we were able to successfully repair his arteries and nerves, and fix his broken bones and cut tendons. Now he will need to heal and have hand therapy, and then get back to being a kid again! Because he is so young, his chance of making a full recovery is very good. I use a microscope for these types of surgery, and stitches thinner than hair, to sew the blood vessels together. #revascularization #replantation #replant #replantationoffinger #handsurgery #plasticsurgery #cutfinger #blendersafety #longlivechildhood

When kids get cancer, I like to do everything I can to make their experience with surgery better. One of my favorite things is to use a non-stick gauze and cut into shapes for the dressing! This little girl had a large tumor on her shoulder that had come back twice after another surgeon removed it. I worked with my awesome oncologist partner who was able to completely remove it once and for all, and I was able to close her wound. You can imagine after a few major operations she was not excited about having surgery with me! Hopefully her rainbows and unicorns will help her close this chapter of her life with a happy end. #details #rainbowsandunicorns #pediatricplasticsurgery #childhoodcancerawareness #bandageart

I’m headed back to work tomorrow after a relaxing week off for my birthday. I had originally had something more exciting planned for my 40th, but I don’t feel like I’ve missed out. This year, strange as it has been, has also been filled with many blessings. Quarantine meant that I got to spend more time with my husband than I ever have before (we met just before I started residency and so he’s only known me through the hardest years of working and training.) I started learnin...g a new language (thank you @duolingo ) and managed to snag my legendary trophy this week! My research group just won a grant to help our project looking at new treatments for Dupuytrens disease (thank you @handsurgeryassn ) And the vaccine is here! There is so much to look forward to in this next year of life, and I’m grateful for what the last year of my 30’s gave me. #handsurgery #giftsofhealthandhappiness #thisis40 #dupuytrencontracture #thatsahomemadecake #christmasinquarantine See more

Virtual grand rounds coming up! I’m exciting to spend some time with the residents at @ucsdplasticsurgery on Wednesday! (Shh, I’m doubled booked and will be giving grand rounds to the @ucsfplasticsurgery residents earlier that morning too ) One of the best things to come out of Covid has been the increased opportunity to teach and collaborate via online avenues. #happysunday #workingontheweekend #virtuallearning #collaboration #teaching #academicplasticsurgery #pediatricplasticsurgery #brachialplexusbirthpalsy #bpbi #brachialplexusinjury #obstetricbrachialplexusinjury

So if you haven’t heard about the #medbikini yet... you might be wondering why this article is so offensive. It’s because it focuses on young women surgeons and subjects them to a standard different than the authors of the paper(men) and attempts to censure them for ‘unprofessional’ behavior, namely having a drink and wearing a swimsuit. The subtext of this kind of shaming is that women cannot be considered professional if they live any kind of normal life and share it on social media. To young women everywhere, I’m sharing a selfie in my bikini, and a glass of champagne, and telling you that you can be all kinds of awesome at what you do. #goforthandliveyourdreams #timesup #timesupprs #womeninsurgery #womeninmedicine #ilooklikeasurgeon

I’m so grateful to have amazing partners, and lucky to be able to work with residents and fellows. Our 4th of July began a few days before the holiday, and we are still seeing patients coming in with devastating hand injuries from fireworks. The work of caring for these complicated cases has been made so much lighter by having a team I can count on. #teamwork #manyhandsmakelightwork #fourthofjuly #fireworks #blastinjury #explosion #handinjury #ilovemyjobbutiwishpeoplewouldstopblowingtheirhandsoff

Doing my best #manwithnoname impression today. Protected from the sun and socially distant.

Even though it’s not in person these days, I still get up early on Mondays and Thursdays to formally teach our trainees about surgery. Monday is hand conference with both Orthopaedic and Plastic residents. Thursday (6am ) is just for the Plastics residents. We have had to grow into the technological challenges that Covid has created for us. Now we use Zoom and the residents still listen to lectures, present cases, and ‘get’ a chance to practice their oral case presentation skills. Training is hard, but the responsibility of caring for patients is enormous. #missingeveryone #academicplasticsurgery #mockoralexams #conferences #learning #teaching #growing #essentialeducation

With great privilege comes great responsibility. Wearing a white coat is a great privilege, one that puts me in an intimate relationship with people from all walks of life: everyone from those with disposable income seeking cosmetic procedures to those without insurance or citizenship who have urgent needs, from all racial and demographic backgrounds. I have cared for inmates and I have cared for foreign royalty. I care for elderly patients and infants alike. Here is what I c...an tell you: racism is a real problem in our country. Racism harms my patients in quiet and insidious ways, affecting their access to health care, housing, and education. Racism is a public health issue. For the good of all of us, we need to spend the time to root this problem out, to ensure that we respect human dignity. #beexcellenttoeachother #whitecoatsforblacklives #humandignity #timetotakeahardlookatourselves See more

The ASPS website has archived all of the amazing talks from our virtual grand rounds series, for which I gave the final lecture this past week. I am beyond honored to be in the same lineup as these amazing surgeons. I hope that the whirlwind review of one of my most favorite topics is a help for young hand surgeons! #educationmatters #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeons #asps #congenitalhand #pediatrichandsurgery #congenitalhanddifferences #luckyfin #ilovemyjob #virtualvisitingprofessorship

Someone has headlight envy! I love the days I get to operate with my craniofacial partner Dr. Vyas. We help each other with complex microsurgery cases: I bring the hand cases, he brings the facial reanimation, and we both see breast reconstruction patients. Working together means a faster operation (safer for the patients) and also that each of us can spend time to teach our residents about the part of the case we are doing. This picture was taken earlier this week just bef...ore we started a facial reanimation case. We gave a woman the ability to smile again (literally!) by transplanting a muscle from her leg to her face. And even if Dr. Vyas doesn’t have a cool headlamp like the rest of the team, we still had a blast together. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #freeflap #facialreanimation #facialreanimationsurgery #givingourbesttoothers #smilesurgery #plasticsurgery #microsurgery #reconstructivesurgery #fiercepose See more

Reconstructive surgery has afforded me the great privilege of caring for so many remarkable people. There are humans among us who bear, with so much grace, what others of us cannot conceive. This young girl has epidermolysis bullosa, a genetic condition that prevents the outer layer of her skin from attaching well to the deeper layers. This leaves her skin so vulnerable to injury that even wearing clothing can cause severe blisters. Living with a constant cycle of injury and... healing means that she was an expert in bandages before she was even a teenager. It also means that her fingers have been scarred together. (I have separated them on one hand, and just recently we were able to operate on the the other hand, this video is just before the second surgery.) These scars and contracture will recur, because of the nature of her condition. But I will also still be here for her to release them when they do, continually inspired by her strength and grace. #epidermolysisbullosa #syndactyly #handsurgery #pediatricplasticsurgery #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon #grace #strength #inspiredbymypatients #eb #geneticcondition #woundcare #orangecountyplasticsurgeon #beforeandafter See more

Trying to get some work done around here and this little zoom bomber keeps interrupting my flow. #happysaturday #caturday #zoombombingcat

I keep getting tagged for this #plasticsurgerychallenge but I haven’t exactly figured out what it is . So here’s my best go at it! This is a photo one of my partners took about 5 months ago while I was intensely focused on rebuilding a young girl’s arm. My awesome hand surgery fellow @jisonmd was helping me. These types of cases are why I love my job. I get to pass on the knowledge that was passed to me. I get to change the life of a child. I get to experience challenge and growth every day. #plasticsurgery #boardcertifiedplaticsurgeon #handsurgeon #microsurgeon

Thumbs up guys! This procedure is called pollicization. My patient has a hypoplastic thumb (small or underdeveloped) attached to her hand by just a little skin without bone or tendons. To help her use her hands more effectively I moved her index finger over to create a new thumb . After this new thumb is healed, she will be able to pinch and pick things up! #centralization #pollicization #radialclubhand #thumbhypoplasia #radialdysplasia #radiallongitudinalarrest #embryology #congenitalhand #babyhands #pediatrichandsurgery #pediatricplasticsurgery #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon #beforeandafter #plasticsurgerybeforeandafter #thumb #thumbhypoplasia #hypoplasticthumb

No filter needed. I am grateful to live is such a beautiful world. #outside #socialdistancing #nopoppieswereharmed #nature #californiapoppies #alwayswiththesunprotection

Alright #classof2020 here you go! This is one of so many social media challenges going around right now as #waystopassthetime . If it makes you laugh, it was worth it. #sistersoregon #sistershighschool #shsclassof98 #soserious #tryingtohidemybraces

Expanded options under the heading of ‘dress shoes’ now that we are doing so much teaching via videoconferencing! Today I got to teach the @vumcplasticsresidency @emoryplasticsurgery and UF plastic surgery residents about congenital hand surgery. I am grateful for the chance to dip my (comfortably slippered ) toes into the water of visiting professorship, thank you @chengster79 for the invitation!!! #virtualvp #visitingprofessor #allfromthecomfortofyourownhome #congenitalhandsurgery #pediatrichandsurgery #boardcertifiedplasticsurgeon #dressshoes #warmfeet