In this "Leveling Up" episode of the Award-Winning PRS Global Open Deep Cuts Podcast, Dr. Bauback Safa discusses the following: the feedback loop between simple and complex cases; how even the most difficult surgery is based on the common building blocks; the similarity between jazz and hand surgery; how the ability to see and apply tension separates the average surgeon from the great surgeon; the importance of taking the time at the beginning of a surgery to set up the field for success; key technical pearls on toe to thumb surgery, placing a tourniquet, microsurgical suturing, and doing an end to side anastomosis; his approach to flexor tendon repairs including the DOLLS stitch for spaghetti wrists; how to choose a sub-specialty if you are a student or a resident still trying to decide on a path; and his approach to the phalloplasty patient - how to set up an effective system of care, indications and preoperative counseling, the technical difficulties to avoid, and the refinements he has made over the years based on the pitfalls he has encountered along the way.

Read a recent PRS Global Open case report by Dr. Safa and co-authors Drs. Lin, Chen, and Cheng— "Immediate Lymphovenous Bypass Treated Donor Site Lymphedema during Phalloplasty for Gender Dysphoria": https://bit.ly/DeepCutsSafa

Dr. Bauback Safa is a plastic surgeon at the Buncke Clinic in San Francisco, California and is also a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University and at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Safa is the Medical Director of the San Francisco Transgender Institute, a multi-disciplinary center providing comprehensive care to transgender and non-binary patients. He and his team have performed more than 700 Phalloplasty surgeries since 2012.

Your host, Dr. Puru Nagarkar, is a board-certified plastic and hand surgeon, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

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