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1
The Breast Center
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
35 Park Street
New Haven, CT 06511
1 of 2
  • The Breast Center
    Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
    35 Park Street
    New Haven, CT 06511
  • Plastic Surgery
    Yale Medicine Multispecialty
    800 Boston Post Road, Wing Bldg #3 Fl 2nd
    Guilford, CT 06437

Bohdan Pomahac, MD

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Breast Reconstructive Surgery, Craniofacial Surgery
Telehealth is available
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Patient type treated
Child, Adult
Accepting new patients
Yes
Referral required
Not Applicable
Board Certified in
Plastic Surgery

Biography

Bohdan Pomahac, MD, is the division chief of Yale Medicine Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, and director of the Face Transplant Program, a program that focuses on face transplantation for patients who have severe disfiguration. He also performs a broad variety of plastic and aesthetic procedures on the entire body, and has special expertise in breast reconstruction, aesthetic surgery, head and neck facial reconstruction, and trauma and burn reconstruction.

Dr. Pomahac was drawn to plastic surgery by the complexity of facial reconstruction. Early on, he embarked on the effort to establish a face transplantation program, a relatively new area of plastic surgery in which he became a pioneer. Before coming to Yale, he led a team that performed the first three full-face transplant procedures in the United States and a total of 10 face transplants—currently the most in the world for a single center—in addition to the first successful bilateral upper extremity transplantations in the Northeast.

“I like to think about plastic surgery as a glue for all surgical services,” Dr. Pomahac says. For example, plastic surgeons treat cancer patients to help them heal, play a key role in treating trauma patients, and manage problems like chronic wounds. “Our scope of practice is very broad,” he says. “It ranges from young children with congenital defects to elderly patients, and it extends to every part of the body. It could be face, head and neck, trauma, a congenital deformity, or an aesthetic problem. But it could be also a problem on your heel or big toe that we're able to fix. Every reconstruction ends as an aesthetic case.”

He advises patients to choose plastic surgeons with the appropriate amount of expertise needed to develop the best approach for their problem. “In plastic surgery, there are half a dozen solutions for any problem. And the surgeon has the opportunity to come up with customized solutions and unique answers to any particular challenge,” he says.

In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Pomahac is a professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine who, for the past eight years, has been researching perfusion technologies to maintain the viability of donated tissues to be used in transplants. It’s a strategy scientists have studied for organ transplantation, and he is interested in the approach for surgeries such as limb and face transplantation. He is also studying how well plastic surgeons who provide those surgeries can achieve the restoration of motor function, sensation, and quality of life for their patients.

Titles

  • Frank F. Kanthak Professor of Surgery (Plastics)
  • Chief, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
  • Professor, Surgery

Education & Training

  • Chief Resident
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, Shriners Hospital Boston (2004)
  • Resident
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, Shriners Hospital Boston (2003)
  • Resident
    Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, West Roxbury VA Medical Center (2001)
  • Research Fellow
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1998)
  • MD
    Palacky University School of Medicine

Languages Spoken

  • Česky (Czech)
  • English
  • Slovenčina (Slovak)

Additional Information

Locations
1
The Breast Center
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
35 Park Street
New Haven, CT 06511
1 of 2
  • The Breast Center
    Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
    35 Park Street
    New Haven, CT 06511
  • Plastic Surgery
    Yale Medicine Multispecialty
    800 Boston Post Road, Wing Bldg #3 Fl 2nd
    Guilford, CT 06437

Biography

Bohdan Pomahac, MD, is the division chief of Yale Medicine Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, and director of the Face Transplant Program, a program that focuses on face transplantation for patients who have severe disfiguration. He also performs a broad variety of plastic and aesthetic procedures on the entire body, and has special expertise in breast reconstruction, aesthetic surgery, head and neck facial reconstruction, and trauma and burn reconstruction.

Dr. Pomahac was drawn to plastic surgery by the complexity of facial reconstruction. Early on, he embarked on the effort to establish a face transplantation program, a relatively new area of plastic surgery in which he became a pioneer. Before coming to Yale, he led a team that performed the first three full-face transplant procedures in the United States and a total of 10 face transplants—currently the most in the world for a single center—in addition to the first successful bilateral upper extremity transplantations in the Northeast.

“I like to think about plastic surgery as a glue for all surgical services,” Dr. Pomahac says. For example, plastic surgeons treat cancer patients to help them heal, play a key role in treating trauma patients, and manage problems like chronic wounds. “Our scope of practice is very broad,” he says. “It ranges from young children with congenital defects to elderly patients, and it extends to every part of the body. It could be face, head and neck, trauma, a congenital deformity, or an aesthetic problem. But it could be also a problem on your heel or big toe that we're able to fix. Every reconstruction ends as an aesthetic case.”

He advises patients to choose plastic surgeons with the appropriate amount of expertise needed to develop the best approach for their problem. “In plastic surgery, there are half a dozen solutions for any problem. And the surgeon has the opportunity to come up with customized solutions and unique answers to any particular challenge,” he says.

In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Pomahac is a professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine who, for the past eight years, has been researching perfusion technologies to maintain the viability of donated tissues to be used in transplants. It’s a strategy scientists have studied for organ transplantation, and he is interested in the approach for surgeries such as limb and face transplantation. He is also studying how well plastic surgeons who provide those surgeries can achieve the restoration of motor function, sensation, and quality of life for their patients.

Titles

  • Frank F. Kanthak Professor of Surgery (Plastics)
  • Chief, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
  • Professor, Surgery

Education & Training

  • Chief Resident
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, Shriners Hospital Boston (2004)
  • Resident
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, Shriners Hospital Boston (2003)
  • Resident
    Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, West Roxbury VA Medical Center (2001)
  • Research Fellow
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1998)
  • MD
    Palacky University School of Medicine

Languages Spoken

  • Česky (Czech)
  • English
  • Slovenčina (Slovak)

Additional Information

Locations
1
The Breast Center
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
35 Park Street
New Haven, CT 06511
1 of 2
  • The Breast Center
    Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
    35 Park Street
    New Haven, CT 06511
  • Plastic Surgery
    Yale Medicine Multispecialty
    800 Boston Post Road, Wing Bldg #3 Fl 2nd
    Guilford, CT 06437
1
The Breast Center
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
35 Park Street
New Haven, CT 06511
1 of 2
  • The Breast Center
    Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven
    35 Park Street
    New Haven, CT 06511
  • Plastic Surgery
    Yale Medicine Multispecialty
    800 Boston Post Road, Wing Bldg #3 Fl 2nd
    Guilford, CT 06437