Dr. Dr. Crystal Totten, MD, FACS

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Get to know General Surgeon Dr. Crystal Totten, who serves patients in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dr. Totten is a general surgeon in the Division of Gastrointestinal and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Kentucky Clinic – UK HealthCare and holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

Kentucky Clinic is the primary UK HealthCare outpatient clinic. Designed to provide total health care service within one location, more than 400 physicians and dentists in more than two dozen specialties are available, offering a wide range of primary and specialty care. It is located next to UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital and contains a multitude of clinics, X-ray facilities, clinical laboratories and a pharmacy.

Actively involved in performing both laparoscopic and robotic procedures, Dr. Totten has special interests in swallowing disorders, surgical endoscopy, hiatal hernia and abdominal wall reconstruction. She works to customize each patient’s procedure based on their needs and can manage abdominal wall hernias using open, laparoscopic, and robotic approaches.

After receiving her Medical Degree and completing training in general surgery at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Dr. Totten went on to complete a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery and abdominal wall reconstruction at the University of Kentucky in 2016. 

Subsequent to her training, she attained board certification in general surgery through the American Board of Surgery (ABS). The ABS is an independent, non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training, and knowledge.

Within her professional affiliations, Dr. Totten holds memberships in the Society of American and Gastrointestinal Surgery, the American Hernia Society, the Association for Academic Surgery, and is recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS). 

Her expertise is reflected in her extensive publications, which cover topics ranging from the cost and outcomes of hernia repair to the impacts of medication alterations on collagen deposition following hernia repair.

General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. A general surgeon performs a wide range of abdominal surgeries for many forms of intestinal and abdominal wall neoplasms, gallbladder disease, gastric and pancreatic disease. They follow the patient through critical care and surgical recovery all the way to outpatient care.