“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.

Education



Medical School
1980-1984

Internship
1984-1985


Residency
1985-1989


Research
1989-1990





Residency
1990-1992



Fellowship
1992-1993

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

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)

"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

"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, Hertzer NR, Beven EG, O'Hara P, Krajewski L: Brachial Artery Repair After Cardiac
Catheterization: Improved Results in 532 Patients. J Vasc Surg 12(1):20-24, Jul 1990

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

Kline RM. Aesthetic Nasal reconstruction Following Skin Cancer. Clin Plast Surg. 2004;31(1):93-111

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)