Fellowship Overview
The Endowed Eric S. Wisenbaugh GURS Fellowship in Reconstructive and Prosthetic Urology at UC Irvine is a one-year clinical Fellowship located in idyllic Orange County California emphasizing urethral and genital reconstructive surgery including penile curvature correction surgery and hypospadias repair, penile prosthesis surgery, Men’s health, bladder and upper tract reconstruction, male incontinence treatment, and cancer survivorship. NIH-funded tissue engineering research is also provided for those pursuing a two-year program.
Length of Fellowship Program
1 year (optional 2 years with an enhanced and expanded research and clinical experience)
Program Highlights
- Training in urethroplasty, penile-genital reconstruction, genitourinary prosthetics and complex abdominal and upper tract surgeries.
- Affiliated hospitals: UC Irvine Medical Center, Long Beach VA Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
- Full-time research coordinator managing a prospectively-maintained reconstructive urology database to support clinical research productivity. This database contains over 3,400 cases.
Clinical Training
- Urethroplasty: Posterior urethroplasty for PFUI and radiation strictures, bulbar anastomotic urethroplasty, substitution urethroplasty for bulbar, penile, and/or fossa navicularis strictures, pan-urethral repairs, revision urethroplasty, lichen sclerosus treatment, and hypospadias repairs. Over 200 imaging procedures are performed annually (retrograde urethrograms and cystourethrograms).
- Penile Reconstruction: Peyronie’s disease repair, congenital curvature correction, penile implants (including complex revisions), and scrotal reconstruction.
- Ureteral Reconstruction: Pyeloplasty, Complex ureteral reconstruction using flaps and grafts, Ureteral reimplantation.
- Bladder and Bladder Neck Reconstruction: Bladder neck reconstruction, non-cancer cystectomies, continent and incontinent urinary diversion and augmentation. Patient population: Male and Female neurogenic, cancer survivorship, trauma and infection related patients.
- Men’s Health: Office procedures (e.g., penile duplex doppler, collagenase administration).
- Robotic and Open Surgery opportunities: Our surgical approaches include open, robotic single port and multi-port options including ureteral stricture repair.
Unique Opportunities
- Funded 2-week trip to HCMC, Vietnam and potential additional travel to Bangkok, Thailand for reconstructive workshops with a focus on anastomotic bulbar and posterior urethroplasty.
- Optional one-week proctorship at an international center of excellence focused on prosthetic urology.
- Attendance at major urological conferences (AUA, SMSNA, Western-Section AUA, GURS) without limitation when the Fellow is presenting accepted abstracts.
Eligibility
- U.S. Citizenship highly desirable (due to VA Hospital affiliation).
- California Medical License needed before July 1, 2026.
Program Leadership
- Fellowship Directors: Dr. Joel Gelman, Professor of Urology and Chief of the Division of Reconstructive Urology and Dr. Keith Rourke, Professor of Urology
- Additional Faculty: Dr. Zhina Sadeghi (Bladder-Abdominal and Upper Urinary tract Reconstruction), Dr. Faysal Yafi (Men’s Health), Dr. Antoine Khoury (Pediatric Urology), and other Faculty.
- Research Laboratory: Directed by Dr. Joshua Mauney, Endowed Presidential Chair in urethral-genital tissue bioengineering.
Funding & Resources
- Supported by a $1,000,000 Endowment and additional funds.
- No General Urology clinic duties or call coverage required.
- Dedicated time for academic pursuits and international outreach.
For further information and application, please contact:
Denise Calhoun
Phone: (714) 456-2951
Fax: (714) 456-7263
dcalhoun@hs.uci.edu
More Information: http://www.societygurs.org/fellowship.html