Dr Amber Leis

07/24/2025

I am so thrilled to have received word that I have been selected to become an associate member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in the ! Surgical education is a passion of mine, and I am honored to represent and continue our mission to lead in this space. Thank you to the people who supported me in this, I am so grateful for each of you.

07/11/2025

What an absolute joy to be able to operate with this woman whom I have admired for so long. She is an incredible surgeon and educator. you are so lucky to have been shaped by this visionary!

06/14/2025

These cats corralled pretty easily, all things considered. What a pleasure to have the entire Division together and host Dr. Joan Lipa for our 29th (!!!!) Annual James Barrett Brown research day. The lasting legacy of the early leadership at continues to echo in the extraordinary research being conducted by our faculty and research fellows.

02/09/2025

Is it really 2:42AM and we are just finishing surgery?! You betcha. I always tell students that surgery is a hard career. It is a demanding profession, one where the stakes are high and the consequences of failure are enormous. This is why we stay late and work long hours day after day: to give our best to our patients. In the years I spent training and the near decade I’ve spent in practice, I have learned that the weight of responsibility and the sacrifices required in this specialty can take a toll. The antidote to this burnout is joy, and joy is a habit that we can cultivate intentionally. I take time every day to reflect on the blessings in my life, to practice gratitude for the opportunity to change lives and work with amazing colleagues and trainees and students, and to try to spread kindness. Because yes surgery is hard, but if you choose to see it as such, it is also the most amazing thing a human can do.

02/09/2025

10/11/2024

Profoundly grateful to the ASPN for this opportunity to travel and learn from some of the giants treating brachial plexus birth injury. I am in awe of the past recipients of this award and feeling very lucky to be counted among them. This upcoming year I will be able to work with and Dan Zlotolow at the Philadelphia Shrine and Tom Quick in the UK thanks to the support of the ASPN. I can’t wait to share what I learn from them with my fellows and trainees.

07/23/2024

Radial longitudinal arrest (also called radial dysplasia and formerly called radial club hand) is the name we give to this condition: where one of the two bones in the arm (the radius) is shorter than normal, or missing. This condition doesn’t always have to be treated, but for patients or parents who want an operation, I move the hand to the end of the arm. This can be helpful so that the fingers are better positioned to reach things. This is type of operation is called centralization. I also rebalance some tendons to help hold the hand in its new position. There are many different ways to do this operation, and unfortunately none of them seem to keep the hand perfectly straight. For this young boy I used a newer technique that may be better at keeping the hand at the end of the arm. It is called a distal ulnar bifurcation arthroplasty. You can swipe to see some X-rays! For this in the know, this is a Bayne 4 radial longitudinal deficiency, treated as described by Ya-chao and others in a recent article. I also used a bilobe flap for soft tissue rearrangement. You can swipe further to see the fibrous anlage, persistent median artery, and radial displaced median nerve that are among the variants seen in this condition. This patient required an external fixator and will undergo pollicization at a later time.

06/22/2024

Healing is a process. This patient had an infection in his bone after a fracture. In order to help him, I moved some of the skin and fat from his hip to cover the wound and provide healthy tissue to help the bone heal. This is called a free flap. I was recently able to provide a small scar revision to make this look even nicer for him! I love using this particular flap from the hip, called a SCIP flap, because it is so thin and such a nice match to the skin on the leg. Also, the part of the body that I remove the tissue from is easy to hide under clothing and swimsuits. I will be demonstrating how to do this flap this year at the .flap.course which is also the same place where I learned how to do this flap from the master 🙏🏻.

06/12/2024

Thank you for an amazing three days in Albuquerque! It was such a pleasure to be your PSF visiting professor. We spent two days in the cadaver lab, which was amazing, and I got to teach your residents as much as I could about brachial plexus injury, congenital hand surgery, compartment syndrome, and nerve and tendon transfers. They are an awesome group! Best wishes to all of them, and thank you for being such wonderful hosts .e.schwartz and Sammy! Thank you for a wonderful place to stay and a fun day in the OR, and to .oneill and the team for the awesome lab support. Lastly, I got the pleasure of meeting .d.onofrio and who were visiting from Rome! It was an international experience 💕

05/21/2024

Wrapping up a very long stretch of work away from work at the and meetings. There was lots of great learning and thinking about ways to be a better educator, the opportunity to speak about ethical challenges in our specialty, and how to build our careers with an eye for our legacy. There was great food, great friends, and a great black tie affair to conclude the whole thing. Thank you Boston, we will be back!

05/18/2024

What a blast I had at this past week as their PSF visiting professor. We had two wonderful days of lectures and cadaver labs and conversations and meals. It is an amazing hospital with beautiful facilities and amazing faculty and residents.

05/12/2024

What an amazing meeting! I won an award, got to watch one of parters win a grant, watch another of my partners Dr. Gordon Lee take over as president of the , see my partner get elected to the nominating committee and watch yet another partner present an amazing case for the best case competition. Our residents showed up in full force, and several of our alumni were invited speakers (🙌 and 🙌). Of course seeing so many friends and mentees and mentors was wonderful as well. Can’t wait til we meet again in Napa next year!