Meet Dr. Wai‑Yee Li, MD PhD FACS
李慧儀醫師
Board-Certified Female Plastic Surgeon
Dr. Wai‑Yee Li’s Latest News
Dr. Wai-Yee Li is a female board-certified plastic surgeon based in Pasadena and Arcadia, California. She specializes in aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery all over the body. Her focus is providing the best surgical outcomes with less pain and minimal scarring.
She performs all types of plastic surgery procedures but her focus is on complex breast reconstruction and revision. She has restored many challenging patients who were left with poor esthetic results and discomfort by their previous surgeons. She has also performed numerous oncoplastic breast reductions and mastopexies (breast lift), direct-to-implant (DTI) after mastectomy, Goldilocks procedure, aesthetic flat closure and latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap.
She ‘invented’ the ‘Combined Bra-Line Back-Lift Latissimus flap’ (BLBL-LAT) procedure, to reconstruct the breast after mastectomy and simultaneously improve back contour. She published her work in 2024 (1). She also has extensive experience in complex reconstruction of the perineal region, often restoring patients after advanced colorectal and gynecological cancers.
Dr. Li has a passion for providing the best possible clinical journey for all her patients. She recently started her own YouTube educational channel for patients to ‘empower women through education’, providing short and concise content (2). She is involved in several breast cancer charities, where her sole purpose is to teach and support patients, including the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades, San Gabriel Valley (3), Living Beauty Cancer Foundation, Pasadena (4) and the Cancer Support Community, Sierra Madre (5).
Born and raised in London, England, Dr. Li is of Chinese origin and is fluent in Cantonese and currently learning mandarin. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Pathology, with honors, from the University of Birmingham, England, where she also completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Li is a member of the Aesthetic Society (6) and serves as reviewer for their official publication, the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
She is also reviewer to the Hand journal, BMJ case reports and Annals of Plastic Surgery Journal. She is also a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (since 2008)(7), a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS)(8) and was also a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MRCS Eng), prior to moving to the USA.
She first trained in general surgery and cancer reconstruction at the world-renowned Royal Marsden Hospital, London, England, (9) followed by plastic and reconstructive surgery training at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, England (10). She went on to pursue a Ph.D. in wound healing and craniofacial development, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, (11) granted by the University of Manchester, England (12). She pursued her second (six-year) residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Southern California (13) in Los Angeles, followed by a craniofacial fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (14).
During this time, she performed many different pediatric surgeries, including cleft lip and palate repair and ear reconstructions. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is frequently invited to present her work at national and international conferences. Her work has been presented in many countries, including England, Scotland, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and China.
She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters and their rescue cats and dog. A trained classical violinist, she loves attending concerts and musicals with her family. She is also an avid gardener and landscape designer.
She enjoys Chinese brush painting, under the tutelage of her friend and teacher, Nan Rae (15). Her background in dress and costume-making led her to start her post-surgical garment company, Surgical Seecrets™, (16) when she saw that her pelvic patients did not have comfortable underwear, allowing easy access for wound care. She invented the ‘Seecret Undies’, a patent-pending one-piece underwear, that patients and nurses have described as ‘a gift’.
For 10 years she honed her skills at a nearby USA top ranked cancer center, where she was sought out by patients and referring surgeons, some travelling far distances. As an educator, she also serves as Adjunct Professor, Division of Plastic Surgery at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, (13) and the General Surgery Residency Program at Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena, California, (17) mentoring the future generation of medical students and surgical residents.
Please reach out with any questions and we look forward to hearing from you.
- Papers website and podcast on PRS GO
- https://academic.oup.com/asj/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/asj/sjae184/7738210?redirectedFrom=fulltext
- https://journals.lww.com/prsgo/fulltext/2024/05000/optimizing_the_pedicled_latissimus_dorsi.14.aspx
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prs-global-open-keynotes/id1449182291?i=1000660187243
- www.youtube.com/@DrWaiYeeLiPlasticSurgeon
- https://www.cchcla.org
- https://www.livingbeauty.org
- https://www.cancersupportsgv.org
- https://www.theaestheticsociety.org
- https://www.plasticsurgery.org
- https://www.facs.org
- https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk
- https://youtu.be/Y9fM5jwouwc?si=xtEu0Gwbnn_J2CXC
- https://www.chla.org
- https://www.manchester.ac.uk
- https://www.keckmedicine.org/centers-and-programs/plastic-and-reconstructive-surgery/
- http://www.bcchildrens.ca/about
- https://www.nanraestudio.com
- https://surgicalseecrets.com/pages/about-us
- https://www.huntingtonhealth.org
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