The photographs are amazing. On one side of Dr. Richard
Kline’s computer screen is a snapshot of an infant with a dramatically
sunken forehead and eyes that have been unable to close since birth.
On the other is an image of the baby after surgery — forehead
and eyes set normally on his tiny, smiling face.
“The beauty of plastic surgery,” Dr. Kline says, studying
these images, “is that the pictures say it all.”
As he clicks through more striking photographs and talks of the
lives changed by the plastic surgeries he’s completed, Dr.
Kline’s combination of experience and his enthusiasm for his
work is obvious. “I have the dream practice,” he says,
of the acclaimed East Cooper Plastic Surgery that he founded in
2000.
By design, he says, the practice offers a wide spectrum of procedures,
and is the only private practice in the region doing microsurgery.
Dr. Kline says he’s particularly proud of the practice’s
outstanding nursing and administrative staff.
“I think the patients can sense — from the minute they
call — that we are competent, honest and friendly. Everyone
here loves the work that we do.”
Born and raised on James Island, Dr. Kline lives near his childhood
home and his parents. His wife, Elizabeth, is also a surgeon and
the two met in the operating room.
College Furman University
1976-1980 Greenville, South Carolina
Bachelor of Science, Chemistry
Medical School Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
General Surgery
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
General Surgery
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio
Postdoctoral Fellow
Louisiana State University Medical Center
School of Medicine in New Orleans
Neuroscience Center
Dr. Nicholas Bazan, Research Director
Dr. Thomas Panetta, Research Director
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Louisiana State University Medical Center
School of Medicine in New Orleans
Dr. George Hoffman, Chairman
Craniofacial Surgery
University of Miami
Dr. S. Anthony Wolfe, Director
1993-1996 Assistant Professor of Surgery
Assistant Program Director
Division of Plastic Surgery
Louisiana State University Medical Center
School of Medicine in New Orleans
1996-1999 Assistant Professor of Surgery
Division of Plastic Surgery
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
1997-1999 Chief, Division of Plastic Surgery
2001- present Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center
109 Bee Street
Charleston, SC 29401
2000-present Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery
Division of Plastic Surgery
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Diplomate, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Diplomate, American Board of Surgery
Diplomate, National Board of Medical Examiners
Permanent Medical License, State of South Carolina
Permanent Medical License, State of Louisiana
Permanent Medical License, State of Ohio (inactive)
Permanent Medical License, State of Florida (inactive)
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons
American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery
American Cleft Palate Association
Charleston County Medical Society
South Carolina Society of Plastic Surgeons
South Carolina Medical Association
American College of Surgeons
"Brachial Artery Repair After Cardiac Catheterization,"
Winner (3rd place),
Cleveland Surgical Society Annual Resident Abstract Competition, April
14, 1987
"How Safe Is the Harvesting of Cranial Bone Grafts? An Analysis
of 12,271 Cases"
Richard M. Kline, Jr., MD and S. Anthony Wolfe, MD
American Association of Plastic Surgeons, 72nd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,
PA, May 12,
1993
"How Safe Is the Harvesting of Cranial Bone Grafts? An Analysis
of 12,271 Cases"
Richard M. Kline, Jr., MD and S. Anthony Wolfe, MD
Fifth International Congress, International Association of Craniofacial
Surgeons, Oaxaca, Mexico,
October 24, 1993
"Reconstruction of a Massive Trunk Defect with a Free Vastus
Lateralis Flap"
K. Khoobehi, R. Kline, and W. Montegut
Southern Medical Association, Baltimore, MD, November 20-24, 1996
"Extended Hemipelvectomy in a Jehovah's Witness with Erythropoeitin
Support"
M.O. Meyers, S. Heinrich, R. Kline, and E.A. Levine
Southeastern Surgical Congress, Nashville, TN, February 4, 1997
"Models for the Study of Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion"
Society of University Neurosurgeons, New Orleans, Louisiana, February
22, 1990
"Wound Management: Pearls and Pitfalls"
Family Practice Update in New Orleans, April 4, 1995
"Chronic Wounds of the Lower Extremity"
Family Practice Update in New Orleans, April 16, 1996
"Classification and Management of Craniofacial Disorders"
Fifteenth Annual South Carolina Symposium on Cleft Palate and other
Craniofacial Disorders
University of South Carolina, Richland Memorial Hospital, Columbia,SC,
April 3, 1998
"Facial Reconstruction for Congenital & Acquired Deformities"
Southern Medical Association, Dallas, TX, November 12, 1999
"Craniofacial Anomalies and Cleft Palate Care: The MUSC Experience"
Twentieth Annual South Carolina Symposium on Cleft Palate / Craniofacial
Disorders
University of South Carolina, Two Medical Park, Columbia,SC, October
31, 2003
"Advances in Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery"
Pediatric Neuroscience Update
Kiawah Island, SC, April 17, 2005
Kline RM, Panetta T, Updyke BV, Bazan NG: Development of a No-Reflow
Model of Cerebral Ischemia in the Rat Using Angiography. Soc Neurosci
10/90; 16:939
Kline RM, Wolfe SA: Complications Associated with the Harvesting
of Cranial Bone Grafts.
Plast Reconstr Surg 95:5-13, 1995
Long WP, Kline RM, Levine EA: Chest Wall Resection for Extrapulmonary
Tumour. J La State
Med Soc 149(9):323-7, Sep 1997
Kline RM: Management of Craniofacial Anomalies. J SC Med Assoc
93(9):336-341, Sep 1997
Kline RM, Khoobehi C, Levine EA. Trunk Reconstruction with the
Free Vastus Lateralis Flap.
J Reconstr Microsurg 14(4):,May 1998
Meyers MO, Heinrich SH, Kline RM, Levine EA. Extended hemipelvectomy
in a Jehovah's
witness with erythropoieitin support. Am Surg 1998; 64:1074-76
Craigie JE and Kline RM. Ed., Clin Plast Surg. 2004; 31(1)
Woodworth BA, Gillespie MB, Day T, Kline RM. Muscle-sparing abdominal
free flaps in head and neck reconstruction. Head and Neck. (accepted
for publication)
