In this Leveling Up episode of the PRS Global Open Deep Cuts Podcast, Dr. Azari discusses the nuances of bread and butter hand surgery procedures like carpal tunnel and Dupuytren's fasciectomies, his approach to providing trainees with gradually increasing levels of responsibility and autonomy, how he builds rapport with patients and personalizes his approach to each patient's needs and goals, why it’s sometimes important to go against your instincts when dealing with problematic patients, his interest in and lessons learned from hand transplantation, and why patients can be a bit like circling helicopters.

Dr. Kodi Azari is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Plastic Surgery at UCLA Medical center in Los Angeles, California. He serves as the Chief of Reconstructive Transplantation as well as the Medical Co-Director of Operation Mend which is a UCLA program aimed at providing complex reconstructive surgery for wounded service members injured in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Dr. Azari completed General Surgery and Plastic Surgery training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a Tissue Engineering Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Hand and Microsurgery Fellowship at UCLA. He has been one of the lead surgeons on 7 hand transplantation operations including the first double hand transplantation and first arm transplantation performed in the United States.

He is a founding member of the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation, and has served as an Associate Editor for the “Annals of Plastic Surgery,” Guest Editor for “Current Concepts in Organ Transplantation,” and contributing editor for the “Yearbook of Hand and Upper Limb Surgery.”

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

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Pamela Landis, Senior Vice President of Digital Engagement at Hackensack Meridian Health