You may have visited a general surgeon once in your life at least! We know that you visit them when you are advised to but you should have a little knowledge about what fields a general surgeon deals with. General surgery happens to be one discipline that requires knowledge of a vast spectrum of disease issues and also experience in them. A general surgeon is a person who has been thoroughly educated about the diagnosis and care of a patient. It can be pre-operative, during an operation and also post-operative. A general surgeon is educated about any emergency situation and the intensive care a patient might need.
As per category, the knowledge one surgeon has varies. General surgery is that field that does deal with the performing of operation procedures some of which are even endoscopic today to cause minimal or no discomfort to the patients. But the field doesn’t end there. It also deals with the knowledge and experience in a few fields.
To perform a general surgery, the surgeon needs technical proficiency in all the procedures and knowledge as well as familiarity. He also needs a sound clinical knowledge when it comes to the anatomy, epidemiology, physiology, pathology and even clinical presentation. A surgeon usually has knowledge about proper evaluation of the evidences gathered and how the surgery can be done with minimal invasion. The nature of work includes a broad range of surgical operations like:
Kidney, pancreas and liver transplantations- Traumas related to thorax and abdomen
- Conditions that need surgery related to gastrointestinal or the oesophagus and even ones that are related to the anus
- Breast related surgical problems
- Surgical problems related to the skin
- Surgeries that are related to the peripheral vascular diseases and also certain other different cases.
General surgery is definitely one of the biggest specialties in India in terms of surgical specialities and the surgeons have a wide range of specialties which also include a few sub specialties. The sub-specialties are:
Breast surgery : this deals with identification of symptoms related to breast diseases, surgery of breast cancer and also the reconstruction surgeries where there is no need for a plastic surgeon.
Surgery of lower gastro intestines : this is done for the diseases that are related to colon and rectum and even bowel cancer.
Endocrine surgery : this is done specially for endocrinal glands like thyroid.
Surgery of upper gastro intestines : the oesophagus, liver, pancreas, etc form the upper gastro intestines. This sub category also deals with weight loss surgeries like liposuction.
Transplants : hepatic, renal and pancreatic transplantations are also handled by general surgeons.
Acute pain in the abdominal area is considered to be a common emergency situation which needs to be evaluated by a general surgeon. This is because the abdominal area has many organs that can be responsible for causing the pain. The most common conditions for surgery that you may be aware of are hernia, appendicitis and gallstones. But there is a vast world of general surgery lying beyond that too. Today, the procure of surgery has become more advanced and operations are being done using the laparoscopic procedures commonly known as Keyhole Surgery as they leave lesser scars and have very short recovery time.
