Anureet Bajaj, MD

Dr. Anu Bajaj grew up in Oklahoma City; after graduating from Casady School, she attended Rice University and obtained a BA in English and History. She then attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where she received her MD degree. After completing medical school, she completed an integrated residency in general surgery and plastic surgery at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California.

Because of her interest in microvascular surgery, she then pursued and completed a fellowship in reconstructive microsurgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her interest in reconstruction after cancer led Dr. Bajaj to develop a program in DIEP flap breast reconstruction at St. Anthony Hospital. She and her father, Dr. P.S. Bajaj, began performing DIEP flap breast reconstruction and other microvascular flaps for breast reconstruction in Oklahoma City in 2007 at St. Anthony Hospital. Since then, they have performed over 300 such procedures for a total of over 580 DIEP flaps with low complication rates and excellent outcomes.

Many publications have emphasized that with these technically challenging procedures, the more you do, the better your outcomes. Dr. Bajaj has performed over 500 DIEP flaps; currently she performs over 45-50 DIEP flap breast reconstruction cases (or 60-80 flaps) annually, which places her and St. Anthony Hospital at the level of a high volume center with excellent outcomes. The outcomes at St. Anthony Hospital for the DIEP flap are comparable the major national institutions. Dr. Bajaj is frequently invited to speak nationally about her experience of performing DIEP flaps successfully in a community hospital setting - including the California Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting in San Francisco 2017, the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery Annual Meeting, the University of California - San Diego, and the University of California - Davis.