General Surgery

General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland (depending on the availability of head and neck surgery specialists). They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft tissue, and hernias.

General surgeons must be able to deal initially with almost any surgical emergency. Often, they are the first port of call to critically ill or gravely injured patients, and must perform a veriety of procedures to stabilize such patients, such as thoracostomy, cricothyroidotomy, compartment facsiotomies and emergency laparotomy or thoractomy to stanch bleeding.

The benefits of surgery include:

  • Making or confirming the diagnosis of a disease or disorder if suspicion on imaging.

  • Removing the damaged tissue or organ

  • Removing an obstruction, stones, malignancies, tumours, lumps, etc. 

  • Repairing tissues or organs

  • Implanting devices or implants

  • Bypass or redirecting blood vessels

  • Prevent or manage disease progression

  • Remove the source of infection

  • Improve the quality of life by reducing disease (morbidity) and death rate (mortality)

  • Relief from disease-associated symptoms